Meet Your Future
by Hisa-Ai
Summary: Intervention from the spirit world makes it possible for Korra and her friends to travel back in time to when Aang and his friends are still fighting in the war against the fire nation. But why? There must be a reason they're sent back. Will they ever be returned to their own time? How will they all get along in the meantime? Which relationships will survive this test of time?
1. Chapter 1

**So. Legend of Korra. Who's a fan? Yeah? Me, too! How about that? At first, I thought I wasn't going to like it because no Aang, no Toph, no Sokka, no Zuko, no Momo, no Appa, no Iroh, no Suki, no nothing―other than Katara, of course,―that made A:TLA so awesome. So I didn't even bother watching the first few episodes as they were coming on. But then my brothers started showing me little pieces of episodes they thought were funny and the next thing I know, I'm fucking hooked on the shit and getting kind of pissed that there's only going to be twenty-some episodes in the whole series. I mean seriously, it's really really evil to get a person hooked on a show only to end it twenty episodes later. Anyway, after falling madly in love with the show, I came on here, obviously, looking for fics that pertained to Korra meeting Aang. But as I searched, I realized I wanted more than that; I wanted to read something about Korra going back in time and meeting original Team Avatar. And then it became I wanted Korra, new Team Avatar―a name I wholeheartedly _reject, _by-the-by,―Tenzin, and his family to _all_ go back in time someway or another and meet original Team Avatar and... Something. I hadn't figured the rest out at the time, but thought I'd know it when I found it. And you know what? I never did find what I was looking for. So I did what any good writer would do in my situation. I sat down, and I started to write the story I wanted very much to read. As I started typing, things started coming to me and I know where I want to take this and what I want to do with it. Kind of.**

**Anyway, in case you couldn't tell, this is a cross-over of TLA and LOK. Now in the TLA world, this takes place... Okay, I hadn't figured that out _exactly_ yet. I'm obviously taking liberties here and kind of messing around with things, but so what; it's a fanfiction, after all. So, after some thinking and a little bit of research, I came to the conclusion that this takes place after "The Boiling Rock, Part 2" but before "The Ember Island Players," and we're going to pretend that, in "The Southern Raiders," Suki went with Hakoda and all them instead of Sokka and the rest of Team Avatar. Because I forgot all about Suki whilst typing this up and I kind of don't want to bring her in now and mess with the vibe of things, you know? They're in the fire nation, trying to avoid Azula and everyone else who wants them dead, all while trying to come up with a plan and figure out what their next move is. Oh, and they're all back in their fire nation garb. For the moment.**

**And in the LOK universe, this takes place just after "Out of the Past" with two small details from "Turning the Tides"; *spoiler alert* Pema has already had the baby, and Asami has confronted Mako about his and Korra's kiss. Otherwise everything is the same as it was after "Out of the Past." Asami and Mako are still dating, unfortunately, Bolin, Asami, and Mako are staying on Air Temple Island, Korra still can't air bend and Lin****―as in Beifong****―**still has her bending. *End spoiler alert* Any questions? Good. On with it, then.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, or Legend of Korra. I sure as hell wish I did, but, alas, I don't. Not today, anyway.**

* * *

It was a cool night in the fire nation that night as Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph and Zuko all sat around a fire, waiting for their dinner to finish cooking, with Appa and Momo napping nearby. The sky was dark, the moon high in the sky illuminating everything with no clouds around to dilute it, the stars were shining bright yet dimmer than usual, as though allowing the moon its moment to be the true center of attention, the air was cool and refreshing considering it was the _fire nation, _ but welcoming nonetheless after a day of having to travel on foot through the humid forest, each and every one of them sweating buckets as the day wore on until finally they refused to take another step forward for the day and made camp early. Usually, they would have just all climbed on Appa's back and traveled that way, but the flying bison had suddenly come down with a cold that made flying too much of a task for him, and, quite frankly, too much of an aggravation for everyone else; as every time he sneezed, instead of going forward, he went backwards, causing them to lose a good chunk of any land they had managed to cover. So they had decided it would be in everybody's best interest if they just walked everywhere until Appa was feeling better. To their surprise, Appa was actually sneezing _less_ now that he was walking instead of flying, so they had speculated that maybe it wasn't a cold and perhaps allergies instead. Or something… Regardless, they were ground-bound until further notice, and it was becoming _such_ a pain in the ass for them.

"Ugh, my feet are _killing me_," Toph groaned, quickly kicking the bottomless fire nation shoes off her feet and rubbing one of them.

"You're not the only one, Toph," Katara told her, taking her own shoes off as well, her throbbing feet sighing slightly as they were freed from their imprisonment. And she was right, too; all of them had throbbing feet, aching muscles, sweaty brows. It had been a hard couple of days for all of them, but somehow they made it through each and every one of them and kept moving forward the next day. Somehow, they always made it through and kept with what they were doing. Being young really had its advantages. Stubbornness was one of them, though some preferred to call it persistence, not that it really mattered which word was used, so long as the job got done. And it did. To an extent, anyway.

"Yeah, but I _am_ the only one who uses their feet to _see_, Sugar Queen," Toph pointed out, which no one could exactly argue with. The others all kicked off their own shoes as well and took a couple of minutes to relax, feeling their muscles unclench and loosen up as they forgot for a moment all their worries and problems and aching muscles and joints. For just a minute, each of them was in their own state of relaxation, their own personal happy place, if you will.

"I'll do a healing session on your feet after dinner, Toph; see if that might help any." Katara sighed, letting the cool air around her take away all her aches and pains, knowing that when she snapped back to reality they would all be there again, but not caring as long as she got this one moment of peace, a rare moment indeed in times of war.

"Whatever you say, Sugar Queen," Toph sighed, burying her feet in the cool dirt, already feeling the throbbing begin to subside just a bit.

"You know, we really shouldn't…" Sokka interrupted himself with a yawn before continuing. "Let our guards down like this. At least, not all at the same time… What if… Fire nation soldiers…" he trailed off with a moan, stretching his neck by tilting it from side-to-side. They all knew what he meant, of course, but that didn't mean it really registered with all of them.

"You're right, Sokka. So you take first watch and the rest of us will just sit here and… _Relax._" Katara told him, stretching her arms above her head and moaning slightly as she felt her muscles loosen even more. She really never noticed during the day just how tired and taxing their predicament was on her, and all of them really, but once night rolled around the reality almost became too much to bear; they were just a bunch of kids biting off more than they could ever hope to chew. Individually, anyway. As a team, however, their chances of success weren't so slim. When they worked together, sure they were still tired and sore and achy, but they got much more accomplished. Sure they were still just a bunch of kids who were expected to end a hundred-year-long war, and sometimes all that responsibility and expectation might be a bit intimidating, but knowing they had one another to rely on definitely helped ease that feeling in all of them, whether they were willing to admit it or not.

"Nah, you know what? If any Fire Nation soldiers come a knocking, we'll just… Do what we do. Bash skulls and all that magic bending junk you guys do… Is the food ready yet?"

"I don't know, Sokka, you better check on it."

"You heard the lady, Aang; check on the food."

"She told _you_ to do it, Snoozles, not Twinkletoes."

"It's fine, Toph; I got it, Sokka." Aang shrugged, floating over to the fire where their dinner was boiling. It was a stew of some sort that Katara had thrown together after they got done setting up camp and had all voiced their hunger and had whined about who was going to cook, what there was to eat, when were they going to eat, and all that junk. All Aang really knew about it was that there was no meat in it, much to Sokka's dismay. Katara had told her brother that if he went out and caught something, she would prepare it for him, but he had decided against it; either too tired or too lazy to go out looking for something, though since it was _Sokka_ and it was _meat_ they were talking about, it was probably the latter.

Aang took the ladle hanging off the side of the pot and stirred the stew then raised a bite of it to his mouth. Mmm, Katara had _really_ out-done herself this time! It was smoky and sweet and sour and salty all at the same time, coming together in a taste that he could only describe as… _delicious_. "Oh yeah; it's done alright." He announced, licking his lips as he dipped the ladle back into the pot and grabbed a bowl from the pile near it, then filled it up and passed it to Sokka with a spoon; the sooner he was fed the sooner he would let the rest of them have a little peace and quiet.

"How is it, Aang?" Katara asked

"Delicious, Katara." He assured her, her face lighting up with a smile at his words. "_Really_ delicious." He said again, just to get her to smile wider. And she did, which made _him_ smile wider, as well. God, how he loved her smile! He loved it even more when it was _him_ who was making her smile. The moment was ruined, however, by none other than Sokka, who brandished his spoon as a sort of weapon high in the air, as though holding a sword above his head and about to run off into battle. It would have looked silly on anyone else, but it fit right in with the kind of person Sokka was, so no one batted an eyelash at him as he twirled it in the air and cried out indignantly,

"_I'll _be the judge of _that_, Mr. Avatar." He dipped his spoon into his bowl and brought it up into his mouth then chewed _ever so slowly_, lowered the spoon back into the bowl, swallowed and turned to Katara, who was waiting expectantly for his reaction. "Katara…" He started slowly. "This is, by far… The single most incredible thing I've ever eaten in my entire life! Seriously, what did you do to this stew to make it so incredible _without_ meat?"

She smiled at him. Not quite as wide as she'd smiled at Aang, the air bending monk noticed, but still wide enough to show she was flattered by his compliment. With a sigh, Aang began to pass out a bowl of the stew to everyone else. First to Toph, then Zuko, then Katara, and then he took his own bowl and returned to his place beside Katara with another inward sigh. They might have been at war, but that didn't mean they couldn't enjoy themselves every now and then. Good food, good friends, good memories, what more could a person ask for? So they were all a little sore and dirty and tired, they would get through it. They always did and they always would.

"It really is delicious, Katara."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Korra sat in Tenzin's living room, her legs crossed, her fists clenched and held together in front of her stomach. It was just after dinner so everyone was still hanging around, letting their food digest and all that. Mako and Bolin were playing with Pabu, Tenzin and Pema were cooing over the newest addition to their family, a baby boy they had yet to name, Asami was in the kitchen doing the dishes, Jinora had her nose in a book, Meelo and Ikki were in the corner playing some sort of guessing game, though considering how fast they were talking, it really was hard to be sure, Lin Beifong was sitting near Meelo and Ikki, tasked with making sure they didn't go off and break something or get into any trouble, and Korra... She was sitting peacefully away from the others. Meditating, of all things. Ever since experiencing those flashbacks of Yakone's trial and Aang taking away his bending, she had been meditating more than she'd ever been able to in the past, not for the reason Tenzin liked to believe, however, which was trying to get in touch with the spiritual side of bending and find inner peace or whatever sort of junk he talked about when she wasn't paying a lick of attention to him. What she was _really_ doing was trying to cross over to the spirit world, or contact Aang, or even experience more flashbacks from him, in hopes that she would, in some way or another, find the answer for defeating Amon. So far, though, she hadn't had much luck in that department, but that didn't stop her from trying.

This night was no different from any other except for the fact that the room was pretty much full, which would have made meditating even harder if she were still having trouble with it, but given all the time she had put into her meditation as of late, it was just as simple to do it in a room full of her closest friends―and Asami―as it was when she was alone. It was really no different than all the other dozens of times she'd meditated all on her own… So why was it then that, this time, something clicked inside of her after she had been sitting there, completely at peace, completely focused on something deep within herself yet at the same time _outside_ herself for who knows how long? Her eyes snapped open and began to glow a brilliant bright white, and she was surrounded by an aura of the same, brilliant, white light. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and turned to her, not sure what was going on or what they should be expecting. And then, suddenly, everyone else in the house―Tenzin, Pema, the baby, Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, Lin, Mako, Bolin, Pabu, and even Asami―was surrounded by the same brilliant white light, and then… Nothing. There was a flash of white that filled the sky, and everyone inside the house vanished, almost as though they were never even there to begin with.

* * *

**You know, this looked a lot longer when I was typing it out on word starter... Probably because I was using a different font and font size. Gabriola, size 14, for those of you who were wondering. It's my favorite font. Yes, I have a favorite font. Actually, I have several favorite fonts, but I'm too lazy to type them all out for you. So I'll try and keep my A/Ns shorter from now on, I just needed to fill you guys in on the details concerning this fic in this chapter. So, shorter A/Ns, and I'll try and maybe make the chapters a bit longer from now on? Or maybe about the same length? Hmm, we'll see, I guess. I know this chap was kind of boring and might seem pointless, but I have my reasons. I always do. We'll get into the actual cross-over part of this cross-over next chapter, which I hope to have up by Sunday.**

**Since I already have one long A/N, I feel it would be a shame to not make this one long as well. My logic is clearly flawless, as you can see. **

**Anyway, about Asami... I don't like her. She seems crazy. Every time I see her I can't help but think, "Bitch is crazy!" And she is. Something about her just rubs me the wrong way. Actually, me and my brothers talk about this all the time****―TV always seems to bring us together as a family****―and I mean _all the time_. My little brother will come into my room whenever and we'll start talking about LOK and we'll get on the subject of Amon or Asami and we have _insane_ discussions about it. And we throw out _really_ insane theories about it, too. Like, who the hell is Amon? Seriously. He can brush off blood-bending and he can energy bend, yet he hates all benders, so just who the hell is he? In that one flash-back we saw, Aang was able to break the hold Yakone's blood-bending had over him by going into the Avatar State, and then using earth bending to hold the fucker still so he could take his bending away, so we know that's one way to break the hold blood bending has over you, but Amon is not the Avatar, so that can't be it. Just who the fuck is he, then? Seriously. And the energy bending thing... Do not even get me started on that. **

**********Anyway, Asami. **

**********Bitch is crazy. **

**********See if you can follow my train of thought here: Korra likes Mako, Mako likes Korra, Asami likes Mako, Mako apparently kind of likes Asami, but Mako likes Korra more, Asami knows Mako likes Korra more, therefore Asami is one pissed bitch. You with me so far? Now you know what they say about a woman scorned; hell hath no fury like it. So I think either Asami is going to dump Mako, or Mako is going to dump Asami. Either way, it will not go well. Because either way, it will be because Mako likes Korra more than he likes Asami, and they all know it. Doesn't matter who acts on that bit of information first, because it will, in the end, be all Korra's fault. In the scheme of things, anyway. So after Asami and Mako call it quits, I totally see Asami going to the dark side. For revenge on Mako, Korra, or both of them****―**if she isn't already. On the dark side, that is, because there is _always_ that possibility. So I can totally see her working for the Equalists just to get back at those two. Or she'll attack and try to kill Korra. Or Mako. Or leave her for dead somewhere. The glove thingy that bitch has really is quite lethal, in case you couldn't tell. I see her using it on Mako just like she did her father, then Bolin, Tenzin and all who would try and get in her way, then I see her using it on Korra, taking her to Amon, and making sure her bending gets taken away for good. Or something like that. I dunno, there's a _million_ different ways the creators could play this. And I _know_ they didn't just bring Asami in as romantic competition for Mako's heart or some shit like that. This series is going to be _too short_ for that sort of thing. There _has_ to be some other reason for Asami being there. There just has to be. Or maybe I'll be proven wrong and Asami will be the bigger person in all this. I dunno, she just seems... funny. Something is off in that head of hers. It just has to be. I don't know what, but that bitch is just kind of... _Unstable_, if you ask me. Which none of you did. Which is very rude.

**********Got any theories about who Amon is or how things will play out with Asami? I'd love to hear them; I'm always looking for people like me who like to think_ way too much_ about things that aren't even real. **

**********Aaaaanyway, you've heard enough from me this chapter, next time we'll talk more, and hey, I might even have a _chapter_ to go with your A/Ns next time. Wouldn't that be something?**

**********Be sure to let me know what you think!**

**********Always,  
~Hisa-Ai~**


	2. Chapter 2

**First of all, a big thank you to everyone who reviewed and added my story to their alerts and/or favorites, my e-mail has been swamped with the notifications but I really appreciate it, so thank you.**

**So show of hands, who here saw the season finale? *raises hand* What did you think of it? I've already talked about it with a couple of people who reviewed the first chapter of this fic, and, as they know, my response to that question is not a short one, so I'm not gonna go into here. I'm trying to make my A/Ns _shorter_, remember? I'd love to hear what you guys thought about it, though, so, if you wanna talk about it, mention it in a review or drop me a PM, whichever floats your boat. Just to let you know, none of what happened in the finale effects this fic. At all. Korra still can't air bend, she doesn't have the ability to give bending back, they still don't know who Amon is, they still haven't defeated Amon, Mako and Asami are still together, Mako still hasn't told Korra how he feels about her, none of what happened in the finale matters in this fic, 'kay?**

**6/25/12 Disclaimer: **I do not own TLA _or_ LoK. I don't. I kind of wish I did, because LoK would be a million times better and longer if I had anything to say about it, but I don't, so, sadly, LoK is not going to be as long as it should be... That sucks.

* * *

With a flash, Korra, Tenzin, Pema, the baby, Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, Lin, Mako, Bolin, Pabu, and Asami were all transported from Tenzin's house on Air Temple Island to… The middle of the forest. It was dark out, the only light coming from the moon that hung over-head―at least it was a cloudless night that night. Looking around, they could make out the trees that towered high above them, flowers that grew below them, and bushes and all sorts of other plants and what-have-you that were growing here. It was quiet, save for a few crickets and the howling of some sort of animal. The air was cool and refreshing compared to the stifling and warm air that had been inside Tenzin's house. It was wonderful out here, no one would argue that, but that didn't change the fact that they didn't know where the hell they were.

"Korra…"Tenzin started slowly, turning to the young avatar who was staring around wide-eyed. "Just what did you do?"

"_Me_? I didn't do anything! Why do you automatically assume it was me? It could've been you or Lin or Mako or even Pabu―why does it have to be something _I_ did?"

Tenzin gave her a look that conveyed his skepticism that Pabu, or any of them, really, had done something to get them… Wherever it was that they were.

"Yeah, okay, it was me." She sighed, shoulders slumping slightly. But she really had no idea what it was that she'd done. One minute she was meditating, the next she was… Well, standing in the middle of the forest with everyone who had been inside Tenzin's house at the time. Seriously, just what the hell did she do? "But I don't know what I did!" She explained. Everyone else let out a collective groan; _of cours_e she didn't know what she'd done! Only _Korra_ could transport them somewhere outside of Tenzin's home and not know where she'd taken them or how she'd done it.

"Actually, Korra, it wasn't entirely your fault," A voice she would recognize anywhere, even though she'd only heard a handful of times, announced. She turned and faced it, coming face-to-face with…

"Aang…"

"Dad…!"

"Grandpa Aang!"

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"It's still pretty early; should we turn in for the night or find some way to entertain ourselves?" Zuko asked, placing his empty bowl and spoon on the pile with the rest of the soiled dishes. Dinner had passed uneventfully; other than a flash of white in the sky that no one had really seemed to notice, everyone was pretty much too busy stuffing their faces with Katara's amazing stew to make conversation of any sort. Even though each of them had a few bowls of the stuff each, there was still about half a pot of the stuff left, which was covered and secured so it wouldn't go bad in case any of them wanted a mid-night snack. And if not… Well, at least they already had breakfast ready. Zuko's question was an interesting one, though; usually they goofed around so much while eating dinner that they never finished until it was way later, leaving no question of what they were to do next. But this night was different, this night they actually had _time_. Time for what? Extra sleep, perhaps? It would be nice, they all thought in their heads, to get a couple extra hours of sleep in, since they were all running short on sleep lately, but they didn't want to go to bed yet; despite how exhausted and sore they were, they just weren't _tired_. Not even Sokka wanted to go to sleep yet, a rare occurrence, indeed.

"We could play Truth or Dare," Sokka suggested, plopping down on one of the benches Toph and Aang had earth-bent for them to sit on after they finished dinner; earth was apparently a lot more comfortable than logs, so it seemed, as everyone had pushed the logs aside and taken to the earth benches instead. Katara had retrieved her water-pouch from Appa's saddle and did a quick healing session on Toph's feet like she promised she would, and it definitely helped; her feet were less sore and she was seeing better with them than she was with them sore and tired like that. The water-bender was now resting on a bench next to Aang, stroking Momo's ears; at Sokka's suggestion, both her, and the lemur, so it seemed, scoffed.

"We're not ten, Sokka. And anyway, what kind of dares could we do in the middle of a fire nation forest in the middle of the night?"

"Hmm, okay, good point. How about the Question Game, then?"

"What's the Question Game?" Aang asked, raising an eyebrow at Katara.

"It's this game played in the Southern Water Tribe during the winter months when it's too cold for the younger kids to go outside to play. They all gather in one igloo, ―whoever out of the group lives in the biggest one is the one who typically hosts the game―sit in a circle, and they play the Question Game until the parents come along to take their children home."

"Wait a second, isn't it winter _all the time_ at the South Pole?" Toph asked with a smirk. Katara rolled her eyes and dropped her hand as Momo jumped off Aang's shoulder and landed on Zuko's head.

"Okay, _technically_, you could say that, _**but**_there _are_ months where it gets warmer than usual―Summer―and months where it gets way colder than usual―winter. And during winter, it's usually way too cold for little kids, elderly people, pregnant women, and the sick. The older kids and adults and the tougher old people venture outside, but they can handle it. They don't like the kids to be out in it for longer than a few minutes at a time. So they stay inside most of the time."

"Only 'most of the time'?" Aang asked.

"Well, there are some cases in which the younger kids go out during the winter months when the adults really don't want them to; sometimes they don't have much of a choice."

"Like when?"

"Well, if there was a fire nation ship that sailed up and landed, everyone in the village was forced to come outside, young, old, sick, healthy, pregnant, didn't matter, they were expected to come outside otherwise there would be consequences to pay. And it didn't matter what the weather was like, either. They probably would have made us come out in a blizzard if they had been brave enough themselves to face that kind of weather."

"Don't forget about kids like us, kids without parents around who had to pick up the slack. When our dad went off to fight in the war, Katara and I were expected to do a lot more, even though we were just kids ourselves. We didn't get to sit inside and play the Question Game anymore; we had to get outside and go to work, no matter what the weather was like. Yeah, every once in a while, we might have goofed off and played around in the snow a bit, but most of the time we didn't have that luxury. Without any men in the village, all of us had to work harder, and even the younger kids had to come out from playing every once in a while to help out, though we really tried not to bother them if we could help it, sometimes it just couldn't be helped." Sokka said thoughtfully, looking over to his sister. They stared at one another for a moment, eyes locked carefully, lost to their past lives, haunted by their memories. The hardships they had faced because of this war, Aang would never truly be able to understand. No matter how hard he tried, he would just never truly get it. Neither would Toph. And Zuko could only partially understand, being the son of the fire lord, he didn't suffer quite as much as they had, but then again, who's to say he didn't? He faced his own kind of suffering, no one was denying that, but somehow he felt bad even thinking about comparing the two situations. Because of him personally, who knew how many families had suffered? Who knew how many kids were in the exact same situation Sokka and Katara had been in and whose lives he hadn't exactly made any better with everything that he did? He felt bad about it―how could he not? He wished he hadn't been such a terrible person back then, he wished he was stronger, he wished he could go back to everyone he had wronged and apologize… But he couldn't. All he could do now was try to help and make everyone's lives better. Surely, that was enough to more than make up for all his evil doings in the past? It would have to be. For now.

"I'm sorry." Both he and Aang mumbled at the same time. Katara broke her stare with her brother first and looked over to Aang; Sokka looked over to Zuko, wondering what both of them could possibly have to be sorry about.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

The older, dead Avatar stood before them all, smiling slightly. Korra turned around and saw the faces of everyone and didn't even have to ask if they were all seeing the same thing she was; the looks on their faces said it all. Tenzin stepped forward tentatively, his eyes on his deceased father. He was just as he remembered him to be, just as he'd been the day he died. Tenzin felt a pang in his heart, he missed his father dearly all the time, but seeing him here like this… It made him miss him more than ever before. He should be so lucky to get to see him long after his death, Tenzin knew, but standing there in front of his father, he felt like a little kid again, and even a kid who was as serious as he was growing up sometimes let his emotions get the best of him. Sometimes little kids, even the serious ones, threw tantrums and started crying for almost no reason, and that's what he felt like doing right now. That, and running to his father and hugging him. But he did neither. He felt tears building up in his eyes, but when he remembered his audience, he quickly wiped them away and cleared his throat, regaining his composure.

"Hello, son." Aang said softly, smiling at him and only him before he turned his attention on everyone else as well. "Hello, Lin. Pema. Children. You've got a wonderful family, Tintin. Your children are destined for great things. And that new baby is a special one, just be sure to keep an eye on him as he grows; he's got a bit too much of Sokka in him." He added with a wink.

"'Tintin'?" Korra giggled, Tenzin's face turned scarlet.

"It's just an old nickname my sister gave me when we were younger. Never bring it up again." Korra raised an eyebrow at Aang, hoping beyond hope that he would provide the backstory. And, much to Tenzin's dismay, he did. He did not like to disappoint.

"When Kya, Bumi, and Tenzin were little, Kya had a hard time pronouncing his name, so she called him Tintin. We all thought she would outgrow it, but with Toph as an aunt she never did. She still calls him that to this day whenever she talks about him. Everyone in the family called him that until he married Pema and joined the council in Republic City. Even Lin used to call him that until he broke up with her."

"Really now? Isn't _that_ interesting… Can I call you Master Tintin from now on when we're training?" Korra teased, earning herself a scowl from her air bending master.

"Wait, so this floating dead guy is Tenzin's father?"

"Yes, now shut up, Bolin!" Mako hissed at his brother, jabbing him in the side with his elbow. But Bolin, never one to take a hint, even one as forward as that, kept at it.

"And he was the Avatar before Korra, right?"

"Yes."

"So doesn't that mean that, in a twisted sort of way, Korra is like Tenzin's father? And couldn't she boss him around and tell him what to do and get him to let us eat meat on Air Temple Island and he would have to listen to her?"

"I don't think that's how it works," Asami offered, noticing that the death glare Mako was giving his brother was one that meant he wanted to burn a hole through his head to get him to shut up. Bolin frowned at her statement, seemingly oblivious to his brother's glare and scratched his chin, it certainly seemed like it should work that way… "Didn't you learn about this stuff in school?"

"We had to drop out after we started living on the streets. Avatar stuff―like, the in depth stuff about past Avatars and what they did and the history of the world before the hundred-year-long war―was only taught in the Upper Grades." Bolin told her with a shrug, dropping out of school hadn't really bothered Bolin much, he really did hate it there, but to Mako it had been like a punch in the gut; he actually _liked_ school and he wanted both him and his brother to "get a good education" but they hadn't had much choice at the time. He had said they would go back one day, but they never did. It was still a sore subject for Mako, even after all the time that had passed, so Bolin usually avoided bringing it up and was always quick to change the subject when someone else started talking about it. This time, though, Bolin had been too caught up in the moment to do so, reminding Mako of that dark time; it still bothered him, everyone could tell. He was standing now with his back turned, shoulders slumped, hands in his pockets. Korra placed a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him when he looked up.

"You know, if it's still bothering you, I'm sure Tenzin and Jinora would _love_ to tutor you guys on the subject. God knows they're always trying to talk to me about it, but I never do listen. History is _so_ boring!" She sighed, crossing her arms behind her head with a lop-sided smile on her face. Mako smiled back at her and straightened up slightly.

"Well, you can count me _out_. Learning's for suckers." Bolin said, crossing his arms over his chest childishly. Everyone else rolled their eyes at him, but otherwise ignored his statement.

"Well, hate to break it to you, Bo," The older Avatar started, a smile still planted playfully on his lips. "But you guys are in for _quite_ a history lesson."

"What's he talking about?" Bolin whispered to Mako, who just shrugged in response.

"I am so glad you asked. Now listen and I shall explain. And please, children and Bolin, keep quiet while I talk; I've only so much time to explain this all to you before I have to get back to the spirit world."

"I am not a child!" Bolin cried indignantly.

"Shut up, Bolin, and when we get back to Air Temple Island I'll take you out for ice cream." Mako offered, knowing his brother's weakness for the soft served treat. Bolin looked at him, trying to decipher if he was being serious or not, and nodded his head enthusiastically once he decided he was. He bent himself a little bench and sat on it with his legs crossed and Pabu sitting in his lap.

"Please continue, Mr. Dead Avatar Man." And so he did, knowing full well that the lull was nothing more than sheer dumb luck and that Ikki, Bolin, and Meelo could only stay quiet for so long. He would have to make this quick, then.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"What do you have to be sorry about, Aang?" Katara asked gently, placing her hand on his shoulder. He looked away from her, he didn't deserve to look into her gorgeous eyes at the moment, didn't even deserve to feel her warm, gentle touch.

"It's my fault you guys had to go through all that. If I hadn't run away―"

"We've been over this before, Aang; what exactly were you going to do? You had only mastered air; not even monks who'd been training longer than you could defeat all those fire nation soldiers. You wouldn't have been able to do anything."

"I could have gone into the Avatar State. That would have helped."

"You would have wound up killing some of the monks, as well. And after you came back from it, there would have been someone else waiting to kill you. Even if you hadn't run away, it wouldn't have made any difference. The fire nation is ruthless. You know that just as well as I do. You didn't do anything wrong, Aang." She assured him gently. He looked up and found her eyes, smiled softly at her. She always _did_ know just what to say to make him feel better. Always. She was sweet, caring, loving, fun, smart, strong, tough, beautiful… One of these days, he told himself, she was going to make a great mother and wife. And if he was lucky, he would be the one to wind up with her… He blushed as he realized what he was thinking, what he was implying, if only to himself. It wasn't a farfetched thought, but… It wasn't exactly _practical_ in times like these. He knew that maybe she had feelings for him as well, but he could never be sure. Sure, they had kissed more than once, but they had never really talked about them. They had happened, but at the same time, it was like they hadn't. He was just so confused about everything sometimes! The only way to really be sure about things was to get her to talk about them with him. But the timing was never right. And if it was right, he was too scared and nervous to really say anything. If it wasn't one thing, it was the other. But being this close to her now, with her smiling down at him… Maybe the timing wasn't exactly "right" but at least he felt his nerves were up to the challenge. As his heart started to pound in his throat, he took in a breath, and started.

"Katara, I―"

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"You guys aren't on Air Temple Island anymore. You aren't even in the Earth Kingdom anymore. You're in the fire nation. Seventy years in the past." Aang told them calmly, watching as their expressions changed from shock, to skepticism, to surprise, and finally, to curiosity. Once they all calmed down a bit, he continued just as calmly. "When Korra was meditating, she… hit something. She tapped into something within herself, and crossed the threshold of the Spirit World. She didn't get all the way in like past Avatars have been able to do, but she got far enough in for me to be able to do this. _I_ sent you all back in time; _I_ brought you all here."

"But… why?"

"Because Amon is a serious threat and he needs to be dealt with, but you're not ready, Korra. You can't face him yet. If you did, you would be defeated and Republic City would fall. And then, soon after, the world."

"But what good does sending us all back here do?" Korra asked, scrunching her eyebrows together as she looked at Aang.

"There are things you all need to work through, things you need to learn. _This_ is where you can learn them; _this_ is where you can work through all your problems."

"In the middle of a war, Aang? That doesn't… How can we work through any problems here? How is it possible to get anything done here other than finish the war?"

Aang smiled down at her knowingly. If only she knew… "I'm sure, Korra, you'll find there is plenty to be done in the middle of a war. You'll see, you'll learn. All of you will. All of you have something to learn here. Before you can go back to your time, each of you will have to learn your lesson."

"How will we know when we've learned the lesson?"

"Trust me, you'll know."

"What about Republic City and Amon and our world in the future? What will happen to it while we're gone?"

"Nothing. It will be like you never left. As soon as you're done here, you'll go back to your time, to the exact moment you were in before I brought you here. No matter what you do here, nothing will change and nothing will happen; you don't have to worry about all that."

"But what―"

"Don't worry. All you need to focus on is staying alive in this time of war. If one of you dies, the whole universe will be thrown out of balance and the consequences will be severe for all of us. Not even the Spirit World will make it out untouched."

"Anything else we need to know?" Aang smiled wider at the attitude hidden under Korra's words, she was _definitely_ from the Southern Water tribe alright, and she had _definitely_ trained under Katara.

Katara.

How he missed her! He visited her all the time in her dreams, but it wasn't quite the same as being there with her all the time, feeling her warm skin, her steady heartbeat, hearing her laugh and tell stories he already knew, getting into water fights with her and then falling into the water laughing uncontrollably, never really having a winner but always having a good time… There was more than one reason he had chosen this specific time to send them back to, not that they needed to know that, though.

"Dad?" Tenzin asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. Aang looked down and glanced at his son, how long had he been zoning out? He really ought to get better at that. But then again, he'd been like that ever since he was a kid. Spacing out and letting his mind wander for who knows how long whenever he thought about Katara… He was never very good at hiding his feelings about her; never good at covering up whenever he got caught thinking about her. Even as a spirit he sucked at it. "You were thinking about her, weren't you?" He asked with a knowing look on his face. Aang nodded, a goofy grin on his face.

"It's hard not to. I miss her all the time. Your mother really is a special woman, Tintin; I was lucky enough it was _her_ who found me in that ice-burg; I get to say it was love at first sight and all that. You'll tell her I love her next time you see her, won't you?"

"Of course, but she already knows that."

"I know, but I also know she misses it being said to her. As wrong as it might sound, I can't wait for her to join me in the Spirit World. I can't wait to see her again so I can tell her that I love her myself every day for the rest of eternity. Never take that for granted―that goes for all of you. If you love someone, tell them, and tell them every chance you get, because one day one of you is going to die before the other―that's just the way it is―and when that happens, you'll wish you had told them a thousand times more than you actually did." Aang told them, he knew whose nerves he was hitting, he knew _exactly_ how his words affected each and every one of them, and he knew who was taking what he said to heart and who was just brushing him off. He also knew how things were bound to turn out, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't interested in seeing how they played out.

"Okay, you just got mush all over my favorite boots, so let me ask you again: is there anything else we need to know?" Korra repeated. Aang couldn't help himself, that time he rolled his eyes at her.

"Yeah, don't fight me."

"What?"

"Don't fight me. Don't even touch me."

"What are you talking about? Why would I fight you? Why would―Oh."

Aang chuckled as the realization hit her first, and then slowly everyone else started to understand as well, Ikki and Meelo being the only two to not get it. Annoyed that everyone else knew something they didn't, they were about to start asking questions, and everyone knew that once Ikki got started it was almost impossible to turn her off again for a while, so Korra quickly explained it to them.

"He means that we're going to meet him as a kid and that I can't get into a fight with him, I can't even touch him in any way otherwise… Something bad will happen, I'm assuming." She looked to Aang for confirmation and he nodded at her, glad he didn't have to waste time going into details, as that was enough for her. She wouldn't touch twelve-year-old Aang; she wouldn't get into a fight with him. Too bad though; she _really_ wanted to see who would win that fight… Probably Aang, seeing as how he had control over all four elements whereas she only had three under her belt. Not for lack of trying, of course, but that wasn't the point. "Won't that be fun? Not only do you guys get to see Grandpa Aang, you get to see him as an annoying little kid, and you can tease him about his crush on Grandma Katara and everything. Plus, you can ask them all loads of questions―won't that be _fun_?" They nodded excitedly, still silent despite everything that was going on. Actually, when Korra thought about, it seemed that this was the longest she had seen, or rather _heard_, Ikki be _this_ quiet. Interesting, she supposed maybe the young air bender was _too_excited about meeting her grandfather to say anything or ask any questions? Or maybe she figured if she was quiet as well Mako would take her out for ice cream, too? Either way, she wasn't going to jinx it by saying anything about it out loud; it was better to just let it be and see how long she could keep her mouth shut.

Aang made a face at her "annoying little kid" comment, but otherwise ignored it. He really had to be going, anyway. "Just walk that way," Aang pointed south, "Until you hear the talking. Toph'll know you're there; just don't make much noise, don't talk or come into their view until they give you the all clear. I'm sure they won't attack you, just don't give them a reason to and you'll be fine. I have to go now, but don't worry; this isn't the last time you'll be seeing me. I promise." And then, just as suddenly as he had appeared, Aang vanished, leaving in his wake an empty spot where he had just been and a silence that was almost too loud to bear. With nothing else to do, the group turned collectively and starting walking south, muttering quietly to each other about what exactly had just happened.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Hate to interrupt the moment, love birds, but we've got company." Toph announced, jumping to her feet and cracking her knuckles. The timing really _was_ never right; he groaned slightly and turned to where Toph stood. The last thing any of them wanted to hear right now was _that_; they _really_ didn't know if they'd be able to take on fire nation soldiers right now. If there was only a handful of them, they were all fairly confident in their abilities, but, knowing the fire nation, it would be much more than just a handful, which would make this fight all the more difficult. It was dark, they would be out-numbered, plus, there wasn't much water around, so at least one of them was going to be at a disadvantage, not to mention Sokka was a non-bender―not that that handicapped him, it just meant he would have to be extra careful; he wasn't exactly what one might consider _coordinated_ when it came to fighting in the dark, not that the others―other than Toph, of course―were particularly skilled at it, either, but they did pride themselves on being just a bit better than him.

The rest of them jumped to their feet, took their stances, stared into the darkness beyond a thicket of bushes that Toph indicated towards. Then they waited and stood as silently as they could manage. Katara opened her water-pouch, held her limited amount of water in the air around her, ready to strike. Aang held his staff out, glaring out into the darkness where their enemy was, possibly getting ready to strike. Zuko brought forth a ball of fire in one hand, and held his other hand behind himself, ready to strike with it once he threw the fire ball. Sokka held out his boomerang, looked around and studied his surroundings, trying to figure out how he could use it to his advantage in this fight. And Toph? She stood in a battle stance, feet spread apart, hands clenching and unclenching, taking in the movements of the enemy carefully, studying them, trying to figure out what their angle was, what their plan might be.

"There's ten―no eleven―no twelve. There are twelve of them." She announced slowly, but something was off. Something didn't seem… _Right_. She lowered herself to the ground, placed her hands palm down on it, waited silently as she felt the vibrations they were giving off and studied them for a minute. These weren't fire nation soldiers. They couldn't be. "But… I don't think they're fire nation soldiers."

The others looked at her and blinked, relaxing slightly.

"Who else would be out here in the middle of the night?" Aang asked, lowering his staff so it rested on the ground in front of him instead of hovering in the air.

"I don't know… I think… I think one of them is holding a baby. And there are children. And they're moving kind of like you, Twinkle Toes."

"Moving like _me_? What's that even mean?"

"You know how you're always floating around and stuff and your foot-steps are always so light, even when you're trying to blend in as a fire nation kid? That's kind of how these kids were walking just a minute ago. And one of the adults, too." She informed them, standing up and wiping the dirt from her hands. "I don't think they're our enemies. You can drop your weapons." She told them, turning back towards the thicket. The others looked at each other quizzically, wondering if they should do it or not. Toph wasn't exactly one to run away from a fight, so if she thought the people on the other side of that bush weren't threats, was it safe to trust that judgment? Surely, if they were going to attack, they would have done so by now? Either that, or Toph would have attacked them. And she had said one of them had a baby…

"Okay." Aang said first, dropping his arms and staff to his side. He gave Katara a side-way glance, shaking his head as she passed the water around and around herself from hand-to-hand. She nodded at him and returned her water to her water-pouch then closed it up. If Aang thought it was going to be alright and agreed they should drop their weapons, that was good enough for her. Slowly, Zuko, then Sokka both lowered their respective weapons―Zuko extinguishing his fire and Sokka dropping his boomerang to his side―and stared ahead at the bush as well. They all looked around at each other, wondering if the people were going to come out… Or if they were going to have to go in.

Not wanting a confrontation of any kind―even if they weren't the enemy, who knew what might happen if they got scared and thought Zuko or Aang or Toph or Sokka or Katara or even Momo were the enemy and started attacking themselves? Toph wasn't one to back down from a fight, and he knew Zuko and Sokka would be hard, if not impossible, to talk down from fighting the enemy. Katara was the only one he might be able to reason with if things got out of hand, but if one of them attacked him or Sokka, he knew it would be just as impossible as trying to talk Toph out of a fight―Aang stepped forward and spoke in a clear, confident voice.

"We lowered our weapons, so you can come out now. We _won't_ hurt you."

"Unless you're fire nation." Sokka quickly added, getting a smile out of everyone.

"_I'm_ fire nation," Zuko pointed out.

"Yeah, but we hurt you emotionally, mentally, and sometimes even physically every chance we get." At this, everyone, even Zuko, laughed. To emphasize the point, Toph threw a small rock at the back of Zuko's head. Not hard enough to really hurt him, but hard enough to get the point across. He rubbed the spot on the back of his head, still smiling. The one thing he really admired about this group from the start was their ability to laugh and have fun even when things were at their lowest point. Even at the darkest of times, they never lost hope and they always found something to smile and laugh about. He liked that about them. It didn't make them naïve, it didn't make them weak, it just made them kids. Kids with a lot of responsibility, but still just kids. He really did like that they were reminding him that he was still just a kid, too, and that it was okay to have fun every now and then, even in the middle of a war.

"Okay, we won't hurt you unless you're fire nation. In which case, Sokka will _attempt_ to hurt you, but if you're a bender with any real skill at all, it won't take much to over-power him." Aang smiled, glancing at a scowling Sokka. Katara laughed at her brother's expense, not exactly jumping to his defense. Toph was the only one not laughing.

"As much fun as it is pointing out how weak Snoozles is and how much we enjoy tormenting Prince Emo over here, don't you guys think we should get to the point already?"

"It's killing you, isn't it? Not hearing their voices yet to finish getting a picture of who they are?"

"Grrr… Just come out already!" Toph yelled towards the bush. When they failed to comply, she cracked her knuckles once more. "Fine, we'll just have to do this _my_way then!" And then, with one swift movement, she raised her hands and up came the bushes that were hiding the group from their view. She threw it to the side and left them totally unexposed and in full view.

Katara, Aang, Sokka, and Zuko just stared, their mouths hanging open. Before them stood a group of eleven people and one fire ferret. There were four teenagers, three children, three adults, one baby, and the fire ferret, which was perched on the shoulder of one of the teenagers. But none of that was what surprised any of them the most. What really shocked them was the fact that the three children, one of the women, and the older man were standing there dressed in clothes that looked like air bending clothes. And the older man, with a beard and no hair on his head, had blue tattoos that looked exactly like the ones Aang had.

"Just… _who are you guys_?"

"What? What's happening? Who are they?" Toph asked, frustrated that no one was moving or saying anything so she couldn't tell what was going on. No one said anything, though. They just stood there in stunned silence. No one sure what to make of what they were seeing…

"Katara, did you slip us some cactus juice in our dinner or something?" Sokka mumbled, but she just shook her head. This wasn't a hallucination, this wasn't a dream, this was _real_. But how could it be? How could there be air benders standing before them?

"Seriously, guys. If no one tells me what's going on I'm gonna start throwing rocks. And not small ones, either." Toph threatened.

"Toph…" Katara started slowly, not tearing her eyes away from the group that stood before her. "There's… a man… And…" She trailed off, mesmerized by the group before her and the puzzling, impossible questions that were plaguing her and everyone else there.

"And what, Sugar Queen? Spit it out!"

Katara finally looked away from the group, being the first and only so far to do so, and glanced at Aang, studying his face, which was twisted into one of confusion and surprise. Sensing her eyes on him, he turned his head as well and met her wide-eyed gaze. And just like that, a chain reaction started, Sokka looked away from them and back at Aang and Katara, and finally Zuko ripped his gaze away as well and looked at Aang, Katara, and Sokka. None of them knew what to say, or what to do. What was there _to_ do? What were they even supposed to ask them?

Slightly behind the foursome, Toph scowled and with a grunt, raised her hands and lifted up a decent size rock and chucked it at Aang, knowing full well that he'd done enough training with her to be able to sense it coming and block it or something before it hit him. And if not… Well, maybe the others would tell her anyway just what the hell was going on. Fortunately, though―or unfortunately, depending on how you wanted to look at it―Aang did in fact realize it was coming at him and turned around quickly enough, then punched through it, shattering it into tiny little pebbles that went flying everywhere, some even getting in Katara and Zuko's hair.

"What the hell, Toph?" Aang asked, reaching over and helping Katara brush the pebbles out of her hair, his mind momentarily off the strange people standing only a few feet away from them.

"Hey, I told you guys if you didn't tell me what was going on, I was going to start throwing rocks, didn't I?"

"She _did_ say that."

"Shut up, Sokka!" Katara, Aang, and Zuko all groaned at once, all of them still trying to get the pebbles out of someone's hair as Sokka pouted slightly. Frustrated that they couldn't get all the pebbles out of Katara's long, dark hair, Aang took a step back and used his air bending to just blow them out, which, while it did remove all the tiny rocks from her hair, also sent her hair flying backwards and made it stick up in the most random ways. Sokka, Aang, and Zuko all laughed at the sight as Katara scowled and tried flattening it out, but without much success.

"Err; want me to do you next, Zuko?"

"No thanks." He smirked, glancing at Katara as she dropped her hands in frustration. "I'm good."

"Um… The spiky hair thing looks good on you, Katara. Right guys?" Aang tried.

"Quit lying, Twinkle Toes."

"I'm not lying. Katara could make anything look good." Aang cried out defensively, blushing the second he realized what he'd just said. Sokka, Toph, and Zuko turned to him, each of them bearing a smirk, taunts and teasings on the tips of all of their tongues. "I mean―You just―I…" Aang rubbed the back of his head nervously, struggling to come up with something to cover-up his little slip up. Well, something good and _plausible_, anyway. His eyes darted over to Katara, she was blushing just as he was, and when their eyes locked, both blushed harder and quickly adverted their eyes, their hearts were racing and Toph was laughing… Just a normal night for the group… Except it wasn't. And that's when all of them remembered the group of, admittedly, strange people in their presence. As they all turned back to them, Toph once again demanded they tell her what she didn't already know. But before anyone could answer, one of the little girls came bounding forward, unable to hold back her excitement any longer. She ran up to Aang and started jumping up in the air all around him, asking all sorts of questions and talking really, really… _fast_. If it wasn't so cute, it would have been annoying.

"Grandpa Aang! It's great to finally meet you! My name's Ikki! How old are you? Is that woman Grandma Katara? Is that Uncle Sokka? Is that Aunt Toph and Uncle Zuko? Is Zuko the fire lord yet? Where are we? Are we really in the fire nation? Did you guys win the war yet? Are you and Grandma Katara together yet? Daddy said you two didn't get together until after the war, but you look like you're together! You look weird, how old are you? Why are you dressed in fire nation clothes? Did you start Republic City yet? Where's Suki? Where are we? Why are you guys still awake, isn't it past your bedtime? Did you master all the elements yet? You're an air bender, right? Korra still can't air bend. She's a water bender but she's also the Avatar so that means she can master all four elements. She's from the Southern Water tribe but she lives on Air Temple Island with us so Daddy can teach her air bending. Daddy says she's pig-headed and rash, but Mommy says she's just young and stubborn and has a restless spirit, the hallmarks of an air bender! What does hallmark mean? Did you know that you and Grandma Katara get married and have three whole kids? I'm bored, what is there to do around here? We came from the future and now we have to stay here until Korra figures out a way to defeat Amon, a really scary evil guy who can take away bending! He almost took away Korra's bending once, but then he decided not to because he didn't want her to be a symbol for the resistance, the benders! He's really evil, but we're not supposed to know about all the stuff that happens when Daddy, Korra, and the Fire Ferrets are off the island because they don't want us to worry too much, but Jinora eavesdrops on the adults when they think we're all sleeping and then she comes and tells us! We know a lot more than the adults give us credit for! Like, Korra's in love with Mako, but Mako's dating Asami, even though Bolin says Mako's in love with Korra, and Bolin used to be in love with Korra, too, but he's not anymore because he has a thing for Asami, except we're not supposed to know that either, but Meelo heard him talking in his sleep one night and―Is that Appa?" The little girl, who was apparently named Ikki, if Aang's hearing was correct, rushed over to the flying bison in question, and starting floating around him on a ball of air.

"Ikki, step away from the bison!" One of the teenage girls yelled, stepping forward and narrowing her eyes at the girl. She was dressed in clothes that hinted she was from the water tribe, her skin was darker like Sokka's and Katara's were, and she had deep blue eyes… Definitely from the water tribe. But more than that, Aang felt a sort of kinship with her, like he knew her personally and had met her before. He felt like they were connected in some way, but… Oh. That girl, Ikki, she had said someone named Korra was the Avatar, and that she was from the Southern Water Tribe… Could this be her? It had to be. Ikki had said they were from the future, so that meant Aang was dead and gone wherever or whenever these guys were from, and had been for at least, by the looks of her, seventeen or eighteen years… Wait a second…

"Did you just say Katara and I get _married_?" He called after Ikki, who was petting Appa despite Korra's command that she leave Appa alone.

"Seriously? _That's_ what you took away from all that?" Zuko asked, slightly irritated, slightly annoyed, and slightly amused. Aang just shrugged, it was a legit question and one he _really_ wanted to know the answer to. He held out his hand and a ball of fire appeared, illuminating the faces of the people still standing in front of them. He had a feeling this was going to be a _long_ night.

* * *

**That was an insanely long chapter. There was a lot of ground to cover, though, so don't expect something this long from every chapter. I know not everyone had dialogue or were mentioned in detail, but seriously, there's a lot of people to keep track of here and the chapter was already so long, so I hope you guys don't mind. I thought about bringing General Iroh, Zuko's grandson, back as well, and I almost did it, but I decided against it at the last minute; there's already so many people to try and keep track of and write about... So, unfortunately, no General Iroh in this one.**

**I know the writing might seem a bit... odd, and maybe not all there in this chap, and I do apologize if maybe it all seems a bit wishy-washy... This chapter just wasn't coming right and the characters weren't doing what I told them to do... I'll try harder with the next chapter, and hopefully it'll be loads better. I don't know when I'll have it up by, maybe by the end of the week or so. There was a lot of stuff here, though, so it should hold you guys over until I get chapter three up. I don't even know where to begin talking about this stuff... Sorry if any of the characters seem OOC or if something one of the characters said seems wrong, I did the best I could with this chapter; the next one will be loads better because I won't have to keep jumping from the LoK group to TLA group since they'll all be together.**

**I wanna address three things real quick, though. One: When older, dead Aang is talking about Katara and thinking about her and how much he misses her, I admittedly teared up a bit whilst writing it. It just really got to me. Two: I couldn't resist Tenzin's little nickname. I wanted Aang to call him something to show the bond Tenzin had with him and the rest of the family growing up, and I looked at his name and I was like, "Tin. No, Tintin. That's funnier." Because some little kids have trouble pronouncing certain words and stuff and make up nicknames for their siblings. And with Toph, who _loves_ nicknames, as a kind of aunt to Aang and Katara's kids, the nickname probably stuck even once they got to the point where they _could_ pronounce Tenzin, and it'd just be too perfect if everyone else started calling him that, as well. So that's where that came from. And three: The part there at the end where Aang is all, "Did you just say Katara and I get married?" And Zuko's just all, "_That's_ what you got from all that?" I couldn't resist that either. I thought it was too funny to take out.**

**I know I said shorter A/Ns, but this chapter is long enough I think I'm entitled to a couple extra paragraphs. I have a question for you all now, if you don't mind. And it's very, _very_ important... Who do you think Sokka should end up with? Should I bring in Suki and stick those two together―like they're just a couple of lab rats I'm trying to breed or something―or do you think he should end up with Toph? For the longest time, I was a Tokka fan. But then I was like, "Dude, he's like four years older than her; he might as well be her older brother! And seriously, a fifteen, sixteen year old getting together with a twelve year old... That's just so... weird. And _wrong_." And I wanted Sokka to end up with Suki. I know things are different in the Avatar world than they are in this world, but I can't help but think of things from the perspective of this world and our society rather than theirs. My older brother is four years older than _me_, so when I was twelve, he was sixteen, and if I had had a crush on one of his friends at that age, nothing would have come out of it. If it had, the guy would have been considered a sick bastard and my older brother would have beat the crap out of him and never spoken to him again. So I kind of shied away from Tokka for a while, but now that I'm older, I really don't care which one he ends up with. So I'll leave it up to you guys. Toph, or Suki? Let me know; every vote counts, after all.**

**One more thing, in other multi-chapter fics of mine, I always do something like Quote of The Day or Song of the Day, so I felt like I needed to do something like that for this fic, except different from everything I've done with fics in the past. So what I'm going to do is have a riddle or problem for you all to try and come up with the answer for, and then in the next chapter I'll give you the answer, for those of you who couldn't figure it out. This first one will be kind of easy, and here it is:**

_Pull me out and and scratch my head. I once was red, now I'm black instead. What am I?_

**Let me know what you think the answer is, and be sure to let me know what you think!**

_Always,  
~Hisa-Ai~ _


	3. Chapter 3

**I meant to get this up yesterday, but I get _way_ too distracted _way_ too easily, so I didn't quite get around to it yesterday. It's a day late, but it's long, so hopefully that makes up for it. Actually, I've been dicking around all day and putting off posting this, so finally I told myself that if I didn't get off my ass and post this, I wouldn't be allowed to watch Kenan & Kel tonight, so here I am. The power of nostalgia, huh?**

**So you guys know how on the first day of school, you never quite get anything done? It's all about introductions and going over what you're going to be learning in each class? Yeah, that's pretty much what this chapter's like. Think of it as the first day of school. I had a really bad analogy planned out involving the Revolutionary War―because tomorrow is the Fourth of July, you see―but I decided against using it because I thought it was really lame. Basically, this chapter is introductions. They're gonna go around in a circle―yes, like they're kindergartners―and be all, "My name is (insert name here) and (insert stuff about character, such as where they're from, what they do, what their family situation is like, etc. etc.)" and the other characters might chime in with something, and then they'll go on to the next person in the circle. Hmm, now that I think about it, it's probably also like an AA meeting or something. A support group, I guess. But none of them are alcoholics, so we'll stick with them being kindergartners; it's actually believable when it comes to some of the characters, after all.**

******Anyway, you'll probably get to wondering at some point why I said Rohan―Tenzin and Pema's baby―doesn't have a name yet when they clearly named him Rohan. And the answer to that is simple: I don't like that name. Like, at. All. So I figured, hey, it's my fanfic, I might as well screw with the name; it's not like the kid can object or anything. So, yeah. I haven't actually decided what I'd rather the baby be named, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know.**

**Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed, added me and/or my story to their favorites and/or alert list, I really do appreciate it; I love hearing what you all have to say about what I'm doing here. I honestly cannot believe the reaction I'm getting to this story; 56 reviews in just two chapters... I gotta tell 'ya, that's just awesome. So I really appreciate all of you. And I know I sound like a sap, but I don't care.**

**7/3/12 Disclaimer: **I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender, and I certainly don't own Legend of Korra. So, you know, you can all stop worrying about _that_.

* * *

"I don't even know where to begin…" Aang scratched his head, looking around at the group. After Korra and Tenzin had gotten Ikki to calm down and leave Appa alone―Aang had said it was okay, and that Appa _liked_ the attention, but they had insisted that if she got herself all worked up by playing with the sky bison, it would be impossible to get her to leave him alone and quiet down, which would make it impossible for them to talk, so they got her to leave him alone for the moment. Though for the life of them they couldn't figure out what it had been that they said that convinced her to calm down…―Aang and Toph had made some more benches for everyone to sit on and Zuko had got the fire started up again, as it had all but died down by this point.

"You could ask them to tell you everything about the wedding. Maybe get details on your guys' first kiss as man and wife." Zuko teased with a smirk, making Aang blush. Admittedly, that had been the first thing to pop out at him from what Ikki had said, the very first thing he had focused on. But he was, what, 112 years old? It was okay for him to be thinking about settling down at that age, right? he thought to himself with a chuckle. He was in love with Katara, and to hear that they actually got _married_ at some point meant that she felt the same way about him that he did about her, and it made him happy and got him excited… And he should never say any of that out loud. Ever. At least, not in front of Toph and Zuko; they would never let him hear the end of it. And anyway, slowly, everything else Ikki had said started to hit him, started to sink in. And it was a bit too much. He was so over-whelmed with information right now that his head felt like it was going to explode, making him focus on the most miniscule things, twisting them in a way to try and make sense of them but in the process confusing himself even more. Like, what did she mean when she said _three whole children?_ Did they have only half of one or a third of one that she wasn't mentioning? Were there families in the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation who had eighths and fifths of children, unable to bear whole ones? This was what his brain was like sleep-deprived and on information over-load. And if it was hitting _him_ like, well, _this_, who knew what it was doing to everyone else? "Who knows, maybe they have all the dirty details of your first _night_ together as man and wife. Wouldn't _that_ be a story to hear…?"

"Zuko!" Katara hissed, her face flushing crimson. If looks could kill, Zuko would be dead on the spot and buried twelve feet under at that point. And Katara wasn't even an earth bender! One would think he knew better than to anger the one person among them who could heal him if the need were to arise, not to mention the fact that she was a water bender and the full moon was fast approaching. If he wasn't careful, she just might get him in his sleep, she would of course take mercy on him because he _had_ taught Aang fire bending, so taking him out painlessly would definitely be the way to do it. She owed him that much.

"Seriously, dude, that's my _sister!_ I wouldn't wanna hear that!_" _Sokka yelled at him, eyes wide. Toph just laughed, she would give Zuko this much, he sure as hell knew how to make them squirm. He was good for a laugh or two considering how unbearably emo he could be at times.

"Okay, okay, sorry!" He raised his hands in defeat and quickly shut up; it probably wasn't a good idea to anger the Avatar, after all. Or Katara. He would never say this out loud, but the bitch could be down-right scary when she was mad. Particularly at _him_. He did still recall the incident not too long ago when she promised him his death if she thought he was ever a threat to Aang… He would be lying if he said he hadn't had more than one reoccurring nightmare where she hunted him down and killed him slowly and painfully after he had accidentally burned Aang while the two were practicing fire bending―that was just something that never truly left your mind.

"How about names, then? We could go around the circle and introduce ourselves. Maybe tell each other a few things about ourselves that we think everyone ought to know?" Katara suggested, a tight smile planted on her face. Everyone else shrugged, they were game for it, they supposed. And it was as good a starting point as any to get the ball rolling.

"Great idea, Katara," Aang chimed happily, stars in his eyes as he looked over at her. Katara caught his eye and blushed, looking away immediately as Ikki's words echoed in her mind, _Did you know that you and Grandma Katara get married, Did you know that you and Grandma Katara get married…_ Okay, so Aang wasn't the _only one_ who had focused on that bit of information at first, but… Really this was no time to be thinking about _that_. Was it? No. The matter at hand was far more important. Really, it was.

"Kiss ass." Toph mumbled under her breath, everyone else giggling at the comment.

"Who wants to start?" Katara asked cheerfully, ignoring Toph's snide remark and the giggle that had erupted through the group. Everyone just stared at her, an awkward silence hanging around as they busied themselves, playing with their hair, readjusting their legs, biting their lips, sneaking glances at one another… With a sigh, Katara realized this was going nowhere fast, so she took in a breath and began, twirling a strand of her hair around her fingers as she spoke. "Fine, I guess I'll start, then. My name's Katara, I'm from the Southern Water tribe, and I'm a water bender." It occurred to her as she spoke that if they _were_ from the future then they probably already knew all about them, so everything she had said and everything the others would say were probably already common knowledge to them, and they would probably get somewhat _bored_… But they couldn't just _not_ introduce themselves, it would be too… awkward. Shaking it off, she looked at Aang to take his turn, there really was nothing to do about that at the moment; they would just have to be bored for a bit. Aang stood up and addressed the whole circle as he spoke.

"Uh… hi. I'm Aang. The Avatar. Also an Air Nomad. So, having already mastered it, I already have my cool arrow tattoos. I'm originally from the Southern Air Temple, but my people are all gone now, they were wiped out by the fire nation a hundred years ago. I'm in the process of mastering the other three elements in hope of defeating Fire Lord Ozai, Zuko's father, by the end of the summer. Katara's my water bending teacher, Zuko's my fire bending teacher, and Toph's my earth bending teacher, she won't, however, teach me how to metal bend, a type of bending she invented not too long ago. The sky bison over there is Appa, my best friend from the air temple. And this little guy," Momo swooped down and landed on Aang's head, munching on a piece of fruit he'd found somewhere. Aang reached up with a laugh and stroked his head. "Is Momo. My flying lemur." He sat down then, quite awkwardly, and looked to the person sitting nearest him, who happened to be…

"Yo, Bolin here. I'm an earth bender. A pro-bending _champ_. Don't know what pro-bending is? Don't worry about it. Just remember, when you do hear about it, the name Bolin, because I'm gonna go down in history as the greatest Pro-bending player Republic City's ever seen. Also a lady's man. Can't forget about the ladies." He winked at Katara then, who giggled condescendingly at him. Aang and Sokka both sent him glares while Korra and Mako reached over simultaneously to hit him, Mako punching him in the arm, Korra smacking him on the head. "Ow, what was that for?" he asked, rubbing his head. Evidently, Korra hit a lot harder than Mako did, otherwise Bolin's head just wasn't as hard as Korra originally thought it was.

"Show a little respect, Bolin! That's _Master Katara!_"

"_Master_―Oh, right! She taught you water bending, right?"

"No, I learned from Naga." Korra rolled her eyes at him, not mentioning the fact that the smack was also partially from Tenzin, the look he had given him when he winked at his _mother_ was beyond murderous! Korra thought he might just reach across the fire and rip his balls out, roast them, and then stuff them down his own throat. Or at least, that's what _Korra_ would have done if Bolin had tried flirting with _her_ mother's fourteen year old self… But then, Korra had a bit of a temper sometimes, so she was told.

"Anyway, this is Pabu. My fire ferret." Bolin concluded, holding Pabu high above his head.

Aang quickly recovered from his bout of jealousy, reminding himself these people meant no harm, and this Bolin character was no threat to him when it came to Katara. He was from the future, after all. He smiled at Bolin and held his hand out to Pabu to sniff, who instantly ran over to the young boy and climbed his head as well, fighting for space with Momo and even trying to steal his piece of fruit. Eventually, Momo grew bored with trying to fend the ferret off and split his spoils in half, and then, once Pabu was occupied with his portion, flew over and landed on Toph's shoulder, sure the fire ferret would leave him alone over there. "Nice to meet you, Bolin. You, too, Pabu. It's not every day Momo shares his food; he's even worse than _Sokka_ when it comes to food." Katara giggled at his comment, shrugging at her brother's offended look. It's not like he was _wrong_, she pointed out, to which he conceded; both him and the lemur _did_ enjoy their food… he looked off thoughtfully, giving Asami her chance to introduce herself.

"I'm Asami Sato. I'm a non-bender from Republic City. My mother was killed when I was a little girl by fire benders, and my father is… working for the enemy, so I'm living with Bolin, Mako, Korra, Tenzin and his family on Air Temple Island."

"Pleasure to meet you, Asami. I'm sorry about your mother. And your father. You know, Sokka and Katara's mother was killed by the fire nation when they were younger as well. And Zuko's father is, well, the fire lord, so if you ever need to talk about it I'm sure any of them would be willing to listen. Well, except Sokka. He's not exactly the person you wanna go to when you need a shoulder to cry on."

"Okay, seriously, what is this? Rip On Sokka Day or something?"

"Oh darn, he found out. The whole plan is _ruined_. What ever will we do now?" Toph asked in mock horror, breaking out into a laugh with the rest of the group as she finished her act. Sokka rolled his eyes for what felt like the millionth time that night, seriously, though, everyone _was_ taking shots at him. And it was _really_ starting to get on his nerves. Hopefully, they would grow bored of it soon enough, otherwise he would have to start retaliating, and_ no one_ wanted _that…_

"I'm Mako. A Fire Bender. I can also project lightning. Also from Republic City. Bolin is my little brother, so I must apologize for him. He can be a bit… He's an idiot, but he's my brother, so I've gotta love him. Both our parents were killed when we were younger right in front of us, and we lived on the streets afterwards up until we discovered Pro-Bending. It's kept us off the streets, it's kept us sane, it's kept us alive." He said, eyes hard with passion and determination.

"It's nice to meet you, Mako, and I'm really sorry about your parents. I can only imagine what that must have been like for you, for both of you. At least you have each other; not everyone who goes through something similar can say the same thing."

"Thank you." Mako smiled at him softly, from what he had seen so far, Aang was a really great guy. And he was just amazed that he hadn't let the pop and fame of being the Avatar get to his head. "It's really hard to believe you're reborn as, well, _Korra_." He said with a wide grin and a chuckle.

"And just what's _that_ supposed to mean?" Korra huffed, crossing her arms and glaring at him.

"I think you know what it means." He replied with a smirk, poking her arm. Korra huffed indignantly once again, and turned away from him, mumbling under her breath about fire benders and getting revenge on him once they returned to their own time and were at their next Pro-bending match. It was something along the lines of not defending him as she should and letting him get knocked into the water within the first few moments while letting herself and Bolin remain intact and winning the match without him. He just smiled at her remark, knowing full well she would never jeopardize a game just because of some stupid comment he made… Would she? That was even if there was another Pro-bending match to have there; who even knew if Pro-bending would start up again, if the arena would even be repaired or if the sport would be forgotten in lieu of a new, different game. He hoped that wasn't the case; what exactly were he and Bolin supposed to do without Pro-bending? He shook it off, a different problem for a different time period, he reasoned, turning his head slightly as Korra began to talk, totally unaware of Asami's constant glare at the two through-out their whole exchange and the looks of curiosity all of Old Team Avatar were giving them. This really was too obvious for them to do anything but laugh at.

"I'm Korra, the Avatar after Aang. I'm from the Southern Water Tribe, and Master Katara, you actually taught me water bending when I was younger. You also taught me how to heal; you really are the best healer in the world, you know." Korra said, smiling at her future mentor, completely forgetting about her recent exchange with Mako. Master Katara was one of the few people who could always make her talk no matter what she was feeling. Korra wondered if she would get to experience the same sort of things with her, Katara, in this time period that she did in her own. Would they still be able to talk like they did in the future? Would they get along as well as they were going to? Ugh, time travel was _confusing_, she could already tell. Katara beamed at her remark and blushed slightly as Aang looked at her proudly, his gaze intense and loving. She wondered how long she really would be able to ignore the elephant in the room, how long all of them would be able to avoid it…

"I just do what comes naturally to me." She replied, ignoring Sokka's whining of all the times, yet again, that she didn't help him in all those years whenever he needed first-aid help. The story about the two fish hooks was always a crowd favorite, but it was neither the time nor place to laugh at Sokka's past misery, so they all ignored it, acting, perhaps, on some silent agreement that Sokka was to be ignored or made fun of, depending on what kind of mood there was. Right now, there was no such mood for either, unfortunately.

"And, let's see… I ran away from the South Pole when Tenzin said he couldn't move there to teach me air bending, and the White Lotus wouldn't actually _let_ me leave, so I took Naga, my polar-bear dog, and we kind of sort of ran away to republic City. I might have gotten into a bit of trouble and Toph's daughter arrested me. Long story short, I live with Tenzin and his family on Air Temple Island, and Tenzin's been trying to teach me air bending ever since. I haven't _actually_ been able to air bend yet, but I have got the whole meditation thing down. Granted, it took being trapped in a metal box that I couldn't get out of because no one had the foresight to teach me metal bending, but at least I finally _got it_. Oh, and I'm on Mako and Bolin's Pro-bending team, the Fire Ferrets, I fill the water-bending position." Everyone stared at her, their gazes blinking and unwavering. And they thought _Ikki_ was bad! That was a lot of information to digest all at once. It wasn't quite as bad as what the little girl had provided to them just seconds after meeting them, but it was enough. It didn't raise up quite as many questions, but there was one thing, one tiny little detail she'd mentioned, yet again, that they all, Old Team Avatar, couldn't help but focus on; it seemed that happened a lot when one was presented with a chunk of new information all at once.

"I have a _daughter?" _Toph demanded, her unseeing eyes widening as everyone else voiced their inquiries on the subject as well. They hadn't actually thought of that possibility. While it was true that a group of people from the _future_ was sitting amongst them, it was also true that they hadn't really thought about it all. What it meant. It meant that they all grew up, they moved on with their lives, they lived, as hard as it might seem, they _grew up_, they fell in love, got married, had children, families, had jobs, died… Suddenly, their heads were spinning and it seemed as though the whole world had tilted off its axis. Somehow, some_way_, this war ended and they led normal lives. Well, as normal as possible, anyway. They did things with their lives, they went out there and they helped repair the world after the war was over. They helped nurse society back to health, they impacted the world. They fucking grew up. And faced with that reality, with a life beyond the war, outside their bubble of friendship and, dare they say it, safety, they… froze. They didn't know what to say next, they didn't know what to think. Forget introductions for the moment, they had so many things they wanted to ask them, they had so many things they wanted to know, that their brains just sort of… _stopped_. They were over-loading, suddenly, with reality, with questions, with answers, with possibilities, with futures… They were sitting with people from the fucking future and all they had asked so far was for their names? Suddenly, they all felt oh-so very stupid and confused, and over-whelmed. They were just certain sleep would be impossible for at least the next week or so…

"Ugh, am I the only one whose head is spinning?" Aang mumbled, leaning down and holding his head between his legs to try and get more blood to flow to it, trying to grasp all this was suddenly harder than he thought it was originally going to be.

"Nope."

"No."

"Nu-uh."

"No sir, you are not."

Aang chanced a glance up and saw Katara rubbing her temples, and he was willing to bet Sokka, Zuko, and even Toph were doing something of a similar manner. Well, at least he wasn't the only one befuddled by all this, at least he wasn't the only one who was deathly afraid of the future.

"Seriously?" Korra laughed from her place beside Mako. "What is with you guys? You act like you've never thought of this before!" She jeered, pointing at them oddly and stifling the full brunt of the laugh she really wanted to let out. The future wasn't really something that was too far off. At least, for her and her friends, anyway. It wasn't that big of a deal, so why were they acting like it _was_?

"Korra! Show some respect!" Tenzin hissed, mimicking her words back to her, that had been what she'd said to Bolin about trying to flirt with Katara, she knew, but why was he saying it to _her?_ It wasn't like she was being disrespectful or anything. She hadn't called them idiots, she hadn't made fun of them, she hadn't done anything wrong, she reasoned, so _what_ was Tenzin's deal?

"What? It's not like I did anything! It was just… I mean, they're over-reacting a bit, don't you think?" Korra asked, but to her surprise, not even the kids agreed with her, of course, that could have also had something to do with the fact that Meelo had fallen asleep on his father's shoulders, slumping forward and using his head as an uncomfortable pillow, and Ikki had curled up on her father's lap after realizing that she wasn't going to be able to ask all her wild, fast-paced questions or interject in the conversations like she liked to do and had such grown quite bored with this conversation quite quickly. And since there was nothing else for her to do, she slept. And weren't they all thankful for that! Ikki was definitely a handful, that was for sure. The only one of the air bending children still awake was Jinora, and she wasn't exactly jumping to join Korra's side of reasoning. She was merely sitting and listening, observing as though this was all as interesting as one of her books. And boy, was it ever! This was _history_ in the making! Real, live _history_. She wasn't just reading this, she was _experiencing_ it, and she wasn't about to pass this up―how often did one get to do something like this, after all?

"Not at all," Tenzin informed her, reaching up slowly and removing Meelo as carefully as he could from his head. Once he did, he reached over and handed him to Korra, and she passed him over to Mako who passed him to Asami, who just put the boy on her lap and tried to make him as comfortable as possible a feat in and of itself considering how large the boy was. If he was still on her lap when he woke up, he was sure to wet himself, Korra thought with a smile, and that would just be too much! The fact that he hadn't woken up while they were passing him around like a sack of potatoes was interesting, too, but she attributed that to him just being tired from the excitement and, well, time travel and all that. "They don't know what's going to happen. They don't know what the future holds. To them, all this is over-whelming, and add to the fact that not only are they faced with us, but with life after the war when they haven't even figured out how to _end_ the war, and you could see how they could be feeling confused and their heads spinning. Why, I bet they've hardly ever given a thought as to what life after the war will be like for them, and now they're faced with a certainty of what their future will be like… If you were them, would you think you were over-reacting?"

"I guess not," She grumbled, looking into the fire and willing herself to not put herself in a similar position as them. When she thought about it, thinking about the future, well, it was scary as all hell. She kind of understood where they were coming from. She herself constantly had to force herself to not think about the future. Because it was very scary. Would she be a good Avatar? Would she live up to her legacy, would she get married, would she have kids, would she ever master airbending? Where would she be in five, ten, twenty, fifty years? What would the world be like when she was gone and dead? What would the next Avatar be like? They would be from the Earth Kingdom, but beyond that what would they be like? Her and Aang were so different, as everyone liked to point out, would the Avatar after her be much different from her? Would she marry Mako or someone like him? If she didn't wind up with him, would she every truly get over him or would she spend the rest of her life pining after him? Oh God, what if he wound up marrying _Asami?_ She didn't know if she'd be able to handle that… "_Definitely_ not." She corrected herself, shaking herself out of her stupor. She looked over at the others and turned her head slightly, should they say something or just let them come out of it on their own?

"Okay," Aang sat up a bit too quickly, making his head spin even more than it already was. He smacked his hands palm down on his knees and looked to his friends, they all seemed to be lost in thought, but really, was the rest of this conversation something they wanted to miss? "Guys? Katara? Sokka? Zuko? Toph? You guys okay?"

"Yeah, fine, Aang, just…" Katara rubbed her eyes and looked up at him, smiling slightly. He reached over and took her hand, gave it a gentle squeeze before turning his attention to the others, they appeared to be back in the moment, all thoughts currently brushed aside for _this_ reality. "Fine."

"Okay, sorry about that." Aang replied sheepishly.

"Yeah, it's just… Toph has a _daughter? _That's just _really_ hard to believe!"

"And just what's that supposed to mean, Meat Head?" Toph demanded, glaring at him. Sokka scratched his head nervously, perhaps that hadn't come out exactly as he meant it to…

"Um… You know… You're _Toph_, and you having a kid with someone is just―"

"Just… shut up while you're ahead, Sokka." Katara told him, shaking her head with a slight grin on her face.

"I think I will." He flattened his lips into a straight line in an attempt to keep himself from talking and doing even more damage, as though it were even possible. Everyone else found the moment rather humorous, except for Toph, who seemed to be contemplating the best death for him.

Aang shook his head and grinned at Korra, "Nice to meet you, Korra." He said, fully appreciating the full meaning behind his sentence. It was a tad odd, he'd admit, saying that to someone he was _reborn_ as, but, well, what was he to do about it at the moment? He glanced over at Tenzin and nodded, urging him to take his turn before Toph snapped and started throwing rocks at Sokka, not that he wouldn't deserve it, but there were children sleeping, and he didn't want them to be woken up by Sokka's screams of terror and pain as Toph doled out his punishment, which she was fully capable and willing to do.

"That's Meelo, my oldest son," Tenzin gestured at the sleeping boy in Asami's lap. "This is Ikki, as you already know, my youngest daughter. And I'm Tenzin. I'm… Aang and Katara's youngest son." Everyone from Old Team Avatar stared at him with wide eyes, and they had been surprised when they found out _Toph_ had a kid! It wasn't that the two had _kids_, per se, that threw them―well, most of them, anyway―but the fact that this guy, this guy who had to be at least half-way ancient, was their _youngest_ son. Seriously, _he_ was their _youngest_? Just when the hell did Katara start popping out kids?

"Youngest s―what? How… How did this _happen?_" Sokka demanded, looking between Aang and Katara, who were both blushing and avoiding eye contact with each other.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you about the birds and the bees?" Zuko smirked. "My uncle taught me about it after I waked in on him getting a "happy ending" once. It was awkwardly amusing. He used tea as a metaphor―wanna guess what "tea bag" was an analogy was for?"

"'Awkwardly amusing'?" Aang quoted, ignoring the last bit in an attempt to show he wasn't as childish as a few choice others who were snickering at the comment.

Zuko shrugged, "I would have laughed if it was happening to anyone other than me. I could explain it to you, if you want." He offered with a twisted grin, giving Sokka and Katara in particular a look that suggested he would do it, too, if only to see the looks on their faces.

"As _fun_ as that sounds, Zuko, we'll pass. We learned all about that and more at the South Pole―I bet you never saw a baby being _born_ in the fire nation palace, did you? Besides―with it being so cold back home―sometimes we never knocked, so we walked in on more than enough on more than one occasion to get the idea." Katara told him with a grimace, shuddering at some of the memories that that sentence brought forward. Ugh, somethings you just couldn't unsee…

"Don't remind me." Sokka grumbled, rubbing his head in an attempt to get the images out of his head that had left him scarred for life as a child. If there was a way to erase memories, he would use it in a heartbeat just to get rid of _those_ memories, and he was sure Katara and numerous other kids from the Southern Water Tribe, would say the very same thing.

"You know, I've always wondered, how does a woman watch another woman give birth, know the _pain_ she's going through, and think to herself, "I can't wait to do that one day!"? I thought women were supposed to be smarter than that."

"If women were put off by the pain, do you think any of us would be here? Maybe sex feels good enough to make up for all that pain? Or maybe to joy of raising a child with the man you love makes up for it? Your mother had two children, why do you think _that_ is?" Katara asked him.

"I _refuse_ to believe Azula was birthed. She had to have been hatched or summoned from beyond the grave or something, there really is no other explanation. Your guys' mom had two kids, too; why was that?"

"She loved kids. That's where I get it from."

"And having to take on the roles of a woman in the tribe with the kids and stuff probably didn't hurt matters, either." Sokka supplied, anything to get over the images that just would not leave his mind.

"Probably." Katara conceded.

"Alright, seriously, you guys get _way_ off topic _way_ too easily. Do you all have ADD or something?" Korra asked, giving them a look, here they were sitting in front of a group of people who could tell them pretty much anything about their futures and they were talking about children and sex and teabags? She was beginning to think all of them were a few bananas short of a bunch. She stifled a laugh as she realized how that could be construed, _especially_ considering how much of a turn their conversation had taken, but held it in; she didn't want to give them something else to go off on a tangent about. They looked at her curiously, wondering what in Momo's name "ADD" was, but she brushed them off, telling them to never mind it; it would take far too long for her to explain it and how it tied in to them and, since it was already fairly late and everyone was getting tired, there was just no time for it. Though she suspected Tenzin half wanted her to start talking about it―hearing his mother talk about sex was probably very uncomfortable for him and probably one of the very last things in the world he wanted to do―she still wouldn't do it. She didn't know enough about it, anyway, to explain it to these guys, so they all just let the subject drop, tallying it up to the future just being _weird._

"So, you're our youngest kid?" Aang asked Tenzin, gesturing between himself and Katara as he tried to get everyone back on topic. The idea that they had _kids_ together… Well, he supposed he should have picked up on that earlier when Ikki called him "Grandpa Aang" and Katara "Grandma Katara," but at the moment all that he cared about was him and Katara getting married. Having kids together was the next logical step after getting married, he supposed. He _did_ have a duty to his people, after all, but it was probably best not to speak that sentiment out loud, even if it _was_ supposed to be a joke. The last thing he wanted to do was get Katara mad at him. Hmm, how many kids did they have together? he wondered. A lot, hopefully. He wanted a big family with lots of kids to play with and teach airbending to and love and play pranks on people with… "How many do we have?" He asked, somehow, he knew the grin he had on his face probably made him look stupid, but he couldn't help it. He marries Katara _and_ has kids with her; it really was a great life he had ahead of him.

"And when do they start having them?" Sokka butted in, his voice edgy. He loved his sister, and Aang was probably one of his best friends, and he had no problems with the two being together, but he was too damn young to be an uncle anytime soon; if Katara started popping out kids any time before they were married, he would have to kill Aang. And he didn't want to do that; Aang was the Avatar, after all. But if he had to, he had to. He was sure the air bender would understand…

"_After_ they get married. Long after. Don't worry, Sokka; you're not gonna be a teenage uncle." Tenzin assured him, calming him down quite instantly. "And you guys have three kids altogether, which Ikki already told you." Tenzin reminded them. Aang pursed his lips, she _had_ said that, hadn't she? But… _three?_ That was it? Not exactly the number he was hoping for… Sure, they were probably all loads of fun and he was sure he loved them with all his heart, but three? It seemed too small of a number to be true…

"That's it?" Katara asked, voicing his thoughts for him.

"Isn't that enough?" Sokka asked sharply.

"Well, I mean… It's so small a number… I've always wanted lots of kids, you know that, Sokka. And Aang is so good with kids, I'm sure he's always wanted more as well." She looked to Aang for confirmation and he nodded enthusiastically, wondering how on earth they only have three kids…

"You guys have your hands pretty much full with just us three. Especially Kya and Bumi―they're both more than a little nuts, if you know what I mean. Plus, with everything else going on that you guys have to take care of, you said you would never have time for more kids, even though you've both always wanted more. You spend plenty of time with us, though, and the Air Acolyte Kids. Plus Lin and Sokka, Zuko, and Suki's kids… And all your friends' kids. You guys are all still one big happy family even after you start having kids and settling down."

"Bumi and Kya? So we name one after Katara's mother and one after my crazy friend from the Earth Kingdom―who are you named after?"

"You know, I don't know. I suppose no one." Tenzin said with a shrug.

"Okay, well, it's nice to meet you, Tenzin. Your mother and I are so glad to finally meet you." Aang winked at Katara who, in turn, giggled slightly and blushed bright red.

"Yes, definitely glad to meet you after all this time we spent worrying and wondering about you." She added, still smiling. Tenzin chuckled lightly at them, they were just as he remembered them to be when he was growing up, and he had to remind himself not to get lost in memories of his own, lest he miss anything that happened.

"Aaaaand you two have officially fallen off into the crazy lagoon. When you're ready to come back out, your sanity is waiting for you on the shore." Sokka rolled his eyes at them, a favor they whole-heartedly returned.

"Who's next?" Zuko asked, looking around the circle, the bald monk guy had just gone, so that meant the woman next to him, who was cradling the baby, was to go next. She was dressed in clothes similar to the Tenzin guy and the other children that were there with them, but she couldn't be an airbender, too, could she?

"I'm Pema, Tenzin's wife. I'm a non-bender and an Air Acolyte on Air Temple Island. I'm Ikki, Meelo, Jinora, and this little guy's mother. He's our youngest son, but he doesn't have a name yet." She said with a smile, explaining that they couldn't quite decide on a name for the little guy yet, so he would remain unnamed until they could finally settle on something.

"So that would make you what, my… daughter-in-law?" Aang asked, scratching his head. Pema nodded at him, ever the enthusiastic mother. "And the children are, obviously, my grandchildren? But they never get to meet me, do they? I mean, not in your time… Because I'm… dead?" He asked hesitantly.

"Well how else would this Korra chick be the new Avatar, Twinkle Toes?" Toph demanded. The emotions swirling through Aang were not, however, over-looked or ignored by anyone present. They all knew he had to be feeling, well, _a lot_. This was all a lot to take in, but somehow they felt it was more difficult for him than the rest of them, he was, after all, the only one staring down living proof that he was dead. But they really couldn't wait long for him to fully digest all of this; they still had a few more introductions to make, after all.

"I'm Jinora, Pema and Tenzin's eldest child. I'm an air bender, as are Ikki and Meelo and possibly the baby." She informed them, not saying much as she rode the thrill of referring to her parents by their first names and getting away with it, something she never ever _ever_ got to do.

"I'm Lin Beifong. Toph's… Daughter. I'm an Earth bender and a metal bender, and I was the head of the Metal Bending Police Force in Republic City until I resigned,"

"Why did you resign, Toph's daughter?" Sokka asked, willing himself not to say anything about her being _Toph's_ daughter, Toph hadn't done anything to him the first time, thank Yue, but if he said anything again he might not be so lucky…

"So I could operate outside of the law to find and rescue my officers."

"Rogue cop, huh? Yep, sounds about right." He smirked, looking between her and Toph, surely, any daughter of Toph's would have the sane nonchalance as she did when it came to rules and things of the such, but why was she head of a police force to begin with? And why was she so… _Old?_ He thought Tenzin was old, but Lin... Damn she was old. But it was best to keep that to himself; two Beifongs would probably kill him on the spot with their earth bending combined.

"Pleasure to meet you, Lin. I'm sure Toph can say the same―Right, Toph?"

"Uh, yeah, sure; we'll go with that." Toph said, looking in the direction of her daughter. "Hey." She nodded at her, an interesting exchange, for sure. Lin smiled and greeted her mother; hearing someone call her "Mom" was _definitely_ odd, but not in an entirely _bad_ way, just in an I-never-expected-that-to-happen sort of way. It was going to take some getting used to, that was for sure.

"Anyone else find this weird?" Zuko asked, to which Korra and Sokka both snickered. Toph, being blind and _not_ deaf, sent rocks flying at all three of them, but Zuko and Korra both managed to dodge, while Sokka, not being so lucky, got hit on the head and rubbed the sore spot, thankful he had a hard head so it didn't affect him like it could have.

"I'm Toph, as in Beifong. AKA, the Blind Bandit. I'm the best earth bender in the world, _and_ I invented metal bending."

"Nice to meet you, Toph." Aang said jokingly. There were questions, so very many questions, that they all wanted to ask one another. There was so much they all wanted to find out, so much they all wanted to talk about… But, the introductions were almost over, surely they could wait for Zuko and Sokka to go. Surely, they could all wait five minutes…

"I have a question," Sokka raised his hand halfway into the air before continuing, every seeing pair of eyes on him, proving Aang horribly wrong about them being able to wait five minutes. "If Toph is Lin's mother, who's her father? Who does Toph marry?"

"You know, that's a good question, Sokka." Aang chimed in, looking to the group from the future expectantly.

"Oh, that's a nice little story; we heard it a million times growing up―didn't we, Lin?" Tenzin asked, a smile visible on his face. Lin looked at him curiously, not knowing whether or not they should actually tell it. After all, if she, Toph, knew what was going to happen, wouldn't that sort of mess things up? But Avatar Aang had told them nothing would change, so did that mean they were free to say or do whatever they so pleased without fear of the consequences? That didn't seem right, though. It shouldn't have made sense, but Avatar Aang had said it, and who was she to question him?

"Yes, but I don't think _now's_ the time to tell it, _Tintin._" She glared at him, a look of amusement betraying her anger as he flushed bright red and everyone laughed, the humor of that particular nickname would never get old, so it seemed.

"Wa-wait… _Tintin?_ What the hell is that?" Katara managed out as she tried to reign in her giggles. "A pet nickname? We-were you two, like, involved or something?" She asked jokingly, but once the horrified looks on their faces became clear, they all laughed harder, not being able to believe it.

"So-So… Toph's daughter and your guys' son… That's… That's too rich!" Sokka wheezed between breaths.

"Yes, ha-ha it's hysterical, now may we get back on topic?" Tenzin asked, each word meant to distract from his red face. Lin, too, was blushing, but she wasn't being quite as defensive as Tenzin was, probably because she knew there was no use trying to stop them once they got started, try as one might. Pema looked between the two quite angrily, even if they had broken up long ago, sometimes she couldn't help but be jealous of what they had. They were childhood friends and sweethearts, after all. They had a lot of history together, and they were, once upon a time, friends before anything else, before being in love, before being boyfriend and girlfriend, before _all of that_, they were friends above all else. Sometimes she couldn't help but wonder if maybe Tenzin still had feelings for the earth bender, and if he did who could blame him? They had history, after all, as she often pointed out to herself. Sure, they had four children together, they were married, they were happy, that didn't mean she didn't sometimes wonder about everything, and if he was _truly_ happy or just pretending for the sake of their children. Maybe he felt trapped; maybe he was just in it now for the children… Sometimes, she drove herself damn near crazy with all these questions and wonderings, but sometimes it was just impossible to not think about it.

"Tintin…" Sokka mumbled under his breath as he regained his composure, the others all following shortly after him.

Clearing his throat, Zuko called all attention to him before starting, waiting for the rest of the giggles and snickers to die down, only beginning once they all ceased. "I'm Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation. I'm a fire bender; that's all you need to know." Ever the Chatty Cathy, he kept it short and to the point; there wasn't much these people needed to know. And if they _did_ need to know it, surely they already knew it, so there'd be no point in wasting his breath.

"And I'm Sokka. The meat, sarcasm, and idea guy. I like meat, shopping, meat, sleeping, meat, and did I mention meat? Oh, and jokes. I love jokes. You wanna hear one now? What did the girl sea say when the boy sea asked her out on a date? Shore!" Sokka laughed at his own joke, not noticing in the least that everyone but Bolin was just staring at him, groaning slightly at his lame joke. Bolin, however, laughed right along with him, he definitely liked this guy's sense of humor, that was for sure. "See, this guy gets it!" Sokka nodded at him enthusiastically, he could tell they were going to get along nicely.

"O…kay. Now that _that's_ out of the way… Now what?" Aang asked, looking around at the group. "I mean, we all obviously have _questions_, but where do we start?"

"How about with bed?" Katara asked with a yawn, stretching her arms above her head. She knew it was stupid to want to go to bed now, with everything there was to talk about they could all probably stay up for several days and nights and do nothing _but_ talk, but now that the initial shock and excitement was starting to wear off, she was starting to remember just how tired and sore she was. And anyway, they would still be around in the morning; it's not like they were going to disappear the second they all went to sleep or anything.

"How can you be tired at a time like _this_?" Korra demanded, lowering her voice once she remembered that Ikki and Meelo were sleeping and could be very light sleepers just when you were least expecting it.

"We haven't exactly been 'taking it easy' lately; there's a lot on the line here and we've been doing a lot, we've gone through a lot. We're sore and we're tired―is that really so hard to believe?" Katara asked, scowling slightly at her. Korra threw her hands up in mock surrender, quirking an eyebrow as Sokka, Aang, Toph, and even Zuko started chuckling, she for one did _not_ find the look Katara was giving her funny in the least, so why the hell did they?

"Oh yeah, she's definitely tired." Aang smiled, shaking his head.

"Yep."

"Definitely."

"And _why_ is that funny?" Asami asked, looking at them curiously. Sokka and Zuko both motioned to indicate they would _not_ be answering that question, and Toph just looked indifferent, waiting for Aang to fill them in. It was odd, them being from the future and all, one would think they would know things like this, especially considering Tenzin was her _son_.

"Katara just gets a little… cranky when she's tired." Aang explained, shirking away from Katara's glare. She was about to counter, insist that she _did not_, in fact, get cranky when she was tired, but then realized what was the point? It was just going to lead to some senseless argument and eat up her time and energy, draining her even more and making her more tired… She decided this was a battle better saved for when she had more energy. They weren't going to argue with her about going to bed, though, as they had remembered as well _just_ how tired they were and soon enough, a wave of yawns erupted in the campsite and it was agreed that they should all turn in for the night and continue their discussion and barrage of questions that was sure to follow in the morning, after everyone was well rested and eating. With the decision to go to bed, however, two new problems did arise. Who was to take first watch, and where was everyone to sleep? After a bit of thought and deliberation, it was decided that Zuko and Korra would take the first watch, then they were to wake Mako and Aang, who were in turn to then wake Sokka and Lin, who would stand watch for the rest of the night before finally waking everyone once daybreak hit. Katara and Sokka would sleep in their sleeping bags, as usual, and the children and Pema and the baby would get the few extra sleeping bags they had on Appa's saddle, Aang would sleep by Appa, and everyone else would sleep in earth tents constructed by the earth benders on make-shift beds of leaves from the trees around them. Finally coming to an agreement on all this, everyone but Korra and Zuko went to their designated sleeping areas, Asami and Tenzin carefully tucking Meelo and Ikki into their sleeping bags without waking them.

Zuko and Korra remained sitting on the earth benches, staring into the fire and taking in the silence, each lost in thought. It wasn't until near the end of their shift that they started talking. It started out with an innocent observation on Korra's part and somehow escalated into a conversation that made them lose track of time completely, so when the time came to wake Mako and Aang, Zuko was almost reluctant to do so; he was actually _enjoying_ the conversation with this odd girl. He didn't want it to end, and it surprised him, to say the least. He didn't know if it was just him or if she had been enjoying the conversation as well, but he couldn't stop thinking about. Long after he was laying in one of the earth tents and trying to drift off to sleep, he kept thinking about it, and replaying it over and over inside his head…

She was a strange girl indeed.

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**Aang is like the teacher here. Or leader of the support group. Whichever you wanna go with. He's all, "Oh it's such a pleasure to meet you!" and always having to say something when someone new introduces them-self―Pft, _Avatars_, huh? You thought it was gonna be Katara who would be all teacher-y, didn't you? And that's why it was Aang. **

**So as I was writing this chapter, I remembered this report I had to do in the eighth grade in my English class. It has nothing to do with this story, it's just something I randomly remembered for no obvious reason. Anyway, there was this assignment, and basically we all had to research something and write an outline, make notecards, have a thesis, write a paper and then give a report to the class _on top_ of writing and handing in the paper to the teacher. So when it got to my turn to talk to the class, I was nervous as all hell, because I was terrified of screwing up in some way, shape, or form and getting a terrible grade on the report and then my parents killing me, because you know how _that_ goes. The speech went better than I thought it would, though, because I had the damn thing memorized by that point and sold it with a smile, kept eye contact, and all that good stuff. So after we gave our speeches, we were supposed to take questions from the class and answer them and all that good shit. Anyway, sitting in the front row, literally _right _in front of where I was standing, was my crush at the time. I mean, I had it _bad_ for the guy. He was so cute, he was funny, he was on the football team, he was smart, he was the sweetest guy you've ever met, but the thing is, he had a _girlfriend_. And I couldn't even hate the bitch because she was literally the sweetest, nicest, smartest girl I've ever met; I felt bad resenting her even a little bit. And to top things off, his locker was right next to mine, so everyday before school, between classes, and after school I had to see them there being all lovey-dovey and shit... But that's not what I started thinking of while writing this. After I gave my speech and was taking questions, I was shamelessly flirting with the guy. I didn't know it, though, at the time, that I _was, _in fact, "shamelessly flirting" with him, but I kind of realized it after the fact when I was back at my desk. I just liked him a lot and somehow or another I wound up flirting with him in front of the whole class. It was horrible; I was making him feel quite uncomfortable, but I did not stop until I went back to my desk. I had never done anything like that before, but it was _so_ funny, looking back. He wouldn't even make eye contact with me for the rest of the day. And his girlfriend, who I was actually friends with, refused to speak to me for the next three days. At lunch that day, me and my friends were talking about it and they were all, "You like him, don't you?" And I was all, "Am I that obvious?" And they just looked at me like I was some kind of idiot or something and said, "Yeah, you were _that_ obvious." I don't know why, but it just popped back into my head while I was writing this chapter. I haven't thought about it in years, so I don't know why I just randomly did, but oh well. Anyway, just thought I'd share that with you guys.**

**So anyway, this chapter... Eh, I'm not gonna lie, it's not one of my favorites, but it was essential. Getting all the characters on the same page and all that. The humor mixed in with all this seriousness and emotions and everything was my favorite part about writing it, that's for sure. My favorite part was where Zuko was all, "Wanna guess what tea bag was an analogy for?" Let that be a reminder to you all why this is rated T. Plus swearing. I like it when characters you won't see swear on TV swear in fics. Maybe it's just me, but sometimes certain situations call for swearing. Like, just imagine for a second what a fight would have been like in the cartoon series if they'd been able to swear... I don't think Aang would've been one to swear much, if at all, but Sokka, Toph, Zuko, fire nation soldiers, Azula, Ozai, maybe even Katara from time-to-time... It definitely would have been interesting. Of course it's a kids show so they'd never allow swearing, but still, it would have been interesting and probably rather humorous.**

**The end part with Zuko and Korra is because someone asked me if I could include Zukorra, and I told them I'd maybe try and fit in some Zukorra friendship or bonding or maybe a crush on Zuko's part. Just to let you know. I'm still debating whether or not I should actually go into the whole conversation in the next chapter or not, so let me know if that's something you'd wanna see. Believe it or not, I actually do take into account what you guys think and say in your reviews and PMs. Keep that in mind. Also, just to let you know, something may or may not happen in a future chapter and the group may or may not get split up, so I was wondering which of the characters you'd like to see bond or whatever in future chapters? Like, I already said I'd try and include Zuko and Korra bonding, or maybe a little one-sided-ness, if that's even a word, so what other characters would you all like to see bond? Like Katara and Bolin, Sokka and Lin, Toph and Zuko, Jinora and Momo, Pabu and Tenzin, Aang and Pema, Ikki and Zuko, Asami and Meelo, any two characters at all that you guys would like to see bond or just spend some time talking and getting to know one another one-on-one, let me know, and I'll see which ones I can do. **

**I can't believe I almost forgot about this, the riddle. To refresh your memory, last chapter's was:**

_Pull me out and and scratch my head. I once was red, now I'm black instead. What am I?_

**And the answer, of course, was a match. Congratulations to everyone who got it right, you get your name mentioned here and virtual cookies. You should feel so proud of yourself. Here are the names of everyone who got it right: Chocolatpen, animefreak728, Guest(The one that signed the review "Alice"), Ender The Time Lady, Lady Violet Fire, Bubbly131, and mht224. I don't think I missed anyone, but if I did, I do apologize and you get extra virtual cookies, 'kay? Again, congrats to everyone who got it right, and to those who got it wrong, maybe you'll get this chapter's. Also to Guest―once again the one that signed their review "Alice."― I'm gonna say the answer to your riddle is twelve. At first, I was gonna get my calculator out and start doing some math, but then I realized what an idiot I am―because it's a riddle, not a math problem―and I decided to give it some thought and maybe sleep on it, and the answer hit me when I was laying in bed and about to go to sleep. I hope I'm right. There's twelve months in a year, a "second" of every month―June 2nd, November 2nd, April 2nd, etc., etc.,―so twelve seconds in a calender year. _If_ I'm right, I mean. You be sure to let me know, though. Anyway, here's this chapter's riddle:**

_I can be red or green or yellow. I'll help you stay a healthy fellow. Inside, I am white; I do not emit light. But if you look just right, I hold a star. What am I?_

**Think it over and let me know what you think it is. Also, to all my fellow Americans, have an awesome Fourth of July tomorrow! And be sure to let me know what you think!**

_Always,  
~Hisa-Ai~_


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey there guys! So you're all probably wondering just **_**why**_** I didn't update last week and _why _it's taken me so long to update _this _week, and believe me, I wanted to. I **_**really**_** wanted to. Buuuuuuut I was suffering from some technical difficulties on my part plus a sinus infection, so it was impossible for me to get this up last week. I wanted to, I tried to, but alas, it just was not meant to be. I did work on this story, though. Just because I couldn't update doesn't mean I couldn't work on the story. So what I have for you guys here is last week's _and_ this week's chapters combined. Originally, this chapter was about half as long as it is now, and I was _gonna_ just post it as it was, and then in a couple of days post the next chapter, which would have been about the same length, but then I did some thinking and decided that since you guys have had to wait so long for _this_ update, I should just combine the two so you wouldn't have to wait longer for this week's chapter. And since I combined the chapters themselves, I feel like I should warn you that I also kind of combined the A/Ns from both this chapter and the next, so expect a bit of a read at the end. There's only one riddle though; I didn't wanna over-whelm you guys or anything...**

**Before we get to it, though, I'm sure you've all heard by now about the "Movie Massacre" that took place in Aurora, Colorado at the mid-night premiere of the new Batman movie yesterday at around twelve-thirty AM-ish. Wow. I just... wow. I didn't find out about it until a little after three in the afternoon yesterday, because I didn't even get out of bed until almost two, and then I didn't get on my computer until almost three, and I didn't go to read the news until _after_ three, so I found out about it kind of late in the game, but when I did find out about it... Just wow. I couldn't believe that shit. As the day progressed and then as _today _has progressed, I've been reading every article that I can find and I've been watching everything that I can on TV that is covering this to find out as much as I can about this. I don't know anyone who was there, but Christ, 12 dead so far, and 58 or 59 injured―this guy, the sick bastard, was calling himself the "Joker", and I just... I dunno, I just want to find out _why_, you know? Why he did it. From what I read, he was smart, doing well in school, had a good life growing up―what on earth would make him do something like _this?_ I dunno, what do you guys think of this whole thing? I'm so sorry for everyone who lost someone to that, everyone who died, everyone who was injured. I can't imagine what they went through, what all of that was like, and I know everyone says this, but my thoughts and prayers _truly_ _are_ with those people. Ah, anyway enough of that; we've all―here in America, anyway; not so sure about everywhere else in the world―probably heard plenty about this on the news and everything lately, and there will probably be even more to come, so why depress everyone now? I'm sure you read this to take your mind off everything, not think about it more; sorry about that, I just... felt like I had to say _something, _you know?  
**

**Anyway, enjoy this chapter!**

**7/21/12 Disclaimer**: _I do not own LOK or TLA. The letters themselves or what they stand for in this particular situation. How does one _own _a letter, anyway? Hmm, curiousier and curiousier…_

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"You're awfully quiet, Zuko―is everything okay?" Aang asked the next morning as they all sat down to eat breakfast. The rest of the night had passed uneventfully. There had been no problems, no Fire Nation soldiers, no reasons to worry, no nothing. So watch had been particularly boring that night, with nothing to do but talk to entertain themselves. For the most part, they kept the conversations quiet and light-hearted, not talking about anything too important, as they didn't want to accidentally wake the others up or find out too much all at one time so as to keep the others in the dark, as it was. Mako and Aang had gotten on pretty well, finding it easy to converse about things that didn't really matter while still talking about them like they _did_. Sokka and Lin had had some difficulty getting started, the conversation being more or less _forced_ on Sokka's part, but eventually she, Lin, relented and became more active in the conversation as well, finding it was, in fact, possible to enjoy a conversation with the boy from the Southern Water Tribe. And Korra and Zuko had gotten on… Well, pretty damn great, if you asked Zuko. Sure, they had both been silent for the majority of their watch together, but near the end there, the conversation had really picked up and he had enjoyed it. He actually fucking enjoyed it. He couldn't even _fathom_ how that was possible, but somehow, it was. And he knew it was. And it didn't bother him. Not like he thought it would.

"Yeah. Fine." He mumbled, shoving another spoonful of their heated up dinner from last night into his mouth, not because he was hungry, just to give himself something to do. After Sokka and Lin had woken everyone up, they had heated up the left over dinner from last night, Aang and Katara had gone to a nearby stream and washed up the dishes while it was doing so, and when they got back they passed out the food to everyone, who had taken their exact same spots from the night before. They had all been making casual conversation about how they'd slept, how the food was, and trivial things of the such, with everyone saying something at least once except for Zuko, who remained silent and staring at the fire he had created to heat up the food. Something was going on inside that head of his, his friends could tell. They just weren't sure _what_.

"He's lying." Toph informed them all nonchalantly, causing Zuko to glare in her general direction.

"You know she can't see the dirty look you're giving her, right?" Sokka asked with a smirk, causing Zuko to turn his glare on him. Just _once_ he'd like to have a moment alone with his thoughts without everyone demanding to know what they were!He realized, of course, how damn near impossible that was, but that didn't stop him from wishing it, nonetheless.

"But I can still tell that he was giving it to me," She told them matter-o-factly, shoveling more food into her mouth.

"Whatever." Zuko grumbled, turning his attention back to the bowl of food in his hands, his appetite was non-existent this morning, but that didn't stop him from bringing spoonful after spoonful up to his mouth. Like a type of meditation, the action alone soothed his frayed nerves and he soon found it a lot more bearable to listen to the idle chit-chat that had resumed once the topic of his thoughts had been dropped for the time being. Soon though, he found his attention wandering, focusing on the sounds of the forest around them instead of the people themselves. The chirping of far-off birds letting them know everything was peaceful and still for the time being, the flowing and bubbling of the nearby stream, the lone cricket that was still going, ―albeit reluctantly and almost too quietly to hear if you weren't really _listening_―from last night, the croaking of frogs probably down by the stream, the sound of the wind brushing through the trees, making the leaves rustle against one another as it went by, all of it relaxed him so in a way he wasn't quite used to. Never before had something so simple as _this_―the sounds of nature, of the world, of _life_―never before had it affected him so. He had a nagging feeling that perhaps it had less to do with nature and more to do with a certain conversation he'd had with a certain someone, but he would not allow himself to further explore the nagging feeling; for now, he was at peace. And wasn't that enough?

Somehow or another, his eyes drooped shut, his almost empty bowl and spoon slipped from his grasp and he sat perfectly still on the bench like nothing was wrong, like nothing had happened, like he dropped things for no reason all the time. Everyone glanced at him as the sound of the bowl hitting the ground echoed in their ears, but when they asked him what was the matter, if he was okay, they received no answer. He was still breathing, he was still alive, he was just… _Out of it, _for lack of a better phrase. Aang suggested that maybe he was meditating, but they all knew that if he wanted to meditate he would have said something and gone off to do it somewhere away from everyone, where he could have silence as he did it. His breathing had slowed though, giving the impression he was either meditating or sleeping, and since he'd just woken up not too long ago, they figured the odds of him sleeping were slim to none, at best.

"Maybe he's sick."

"Or just thinking. Maybe the guy just wants to be left alone with his thoughts for once," Toph interjected, trying to save him the trouble of everyone fawning over him and prodding into _what could possibly be wrong with poor Prince Zuko?_ It would certainly save her the trouble of having to _hear it_, at least.

"Are you... _defending_ him?" Katara asked slyly, glancing at her brother and Aang with a smirk and a glimmer in her eye that clued them in to where she was going with this.

"You know, I _think_ she is, Katara." Aang replied with an exaggerated sense of wonder and knowing.

"Why ever could that _possibly _be?"

"Ooh ooh, I know, I know!" Sokka exclaimed, arm shooting in the air as he bounced around as best he could while balancing his food in one hand.

"Yes… _Sokka_?"

"I think that, _maybe_, The Blind Bandit herself might have a tiny little… _crush_ on Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation―what do you think, Aang? Katara?"

Katara and Aang both let out exaggerated and obviously _fake_ gasps simultaneously and looked at Toph, acting as though they couldn't _believe_ their ears, while Toph sat fuming, ready to start throwing rocks at them at a moment's notice. They were just having a bit of fun, teasing her and everything, but she didn't much care for it when it wasn't _her_ who was doling it out.

"No!"

"Is it true?"

"It can't be!"

"But it must be! Why else would she defend his highness, the Prince, so adamantly?"

"You like him!"

"You love him!"

"You want to _be_ with him!"

"You want to have his children!"

"You want to live in the fire palace with him and live happily ever after until―"

"Grrr… Would you dunder-heads knock it _off_?" Toph sat her food down and rose to her feet, brought her fists up in unison then spread them apart quite quickly, pieces of the ground coming up and floating in the air before her. Without another word, she threw her fists forward and sent the rocks flying at the three of them, which Aang quickly intercepted and smashed with his own earth bending before any damage could be done. He stood after the not-so-dangerous danger was gone with a goofy grin on his face, obviously play time was over, but it didn't matter; they'd had their fun.

"Okay, okay, sorry!" He apologized, holding his hands up in mock surrender as he stood there, still smiling.

"Good." Toph sat back down, clearly satisfied with herself. Aang followed suit and returned to his seat beside Katara. In the commotion of trying to not let Toph's rocks smash them, he'd dropped his food to the ground, spilling it everywhere. He pursed his lips and bent down to pick his bowl and spoon up, fully intending to get himself a refill, but once he was sitting up straight again with the bowl and spoon in his hand, a gust of wind shot around the circle, followed by another and then another, leaving everyone staring at the three children who had been the cause of the gusts with wide eyes. They, Ikki, Meelo, and Jinora, were now standing in front of him and Katara, staring between the two excitedly. The two exchanged a quick look before looking back at the kids, taking them in in the daylight for the first time. Now that Katara got a good look at them, Meelo kind of looked like Aang, minus the tattoos, of course. They were all cute, in the way that all little kids were, and they were air benders, which was definitely awesome, but beyond that she didn't know much about them, and that saddened her deep within a part of herself that she didn't even know existed. Seeing these kids, hearing that she and Aang get married, meeting her… _son_, it was all stirring up something within her, something she couldn't quite place a name to…

"Uh… hi?" Aang said, cocking his head at the children. And that was all the invitation they needed. Once they knew they had his attention, they all started in at once, asking questions and making statements that they didn't know would shock him, all vying for his undivided attention. He looked back and forth between all three of them, not sure who to look at and when, who he should start with or what to do about all this, really. He looked to Katara for help, but she just shrugged and let out a giggle, finding the bewildered look on his face cute. Aang, finding Katara less than helpful, looked over to Tenzin finally, hoping _he'd_ be able to help him. Tenzin was smiling widely at the spectacle, his eyes shining with laughter. He just shook his head and ate another bite of his food―it really was delicious, just as Sokka and everyone else had promised them it would be―before clearing his throat and looking over at his children and still bewildered father. Might as well help him out; the sooner the children calmed down, the sooner they'd be able to get down to business.

"Children, one at a time."

Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo all stopped mid-sentence and looked at one another; a single thought passed through all of their minds at once, and suddenly they knew the first thing they wanted to do with him, their grandfather, the Avatar, that ended the hundred-year-long war that they never got to meet…

Turning back to Aang, they all looked at his curious expression a second longer before they all opened their mouths and said in unison,

"Will you air-bend with us?"

Aang smiled at them all, of _course_ he would air bend with them! He loved air bending! He hadn't had someone to air bend with in a long, long time. Too long, he thought. It felt like he'd never had anyone to air bend with, that he'd always been alone, but he knew that wasn't true. Once upon a time, he'd had a lot of people to air bend with, he hadn't been alone, but a hundred years had passed, and a hundred years was a _long_ time; it certainly _felt_ like he'd never had anyone to air bend with. He knew he wasn't _technically _alone, but, when it came to air nomads, he was. Still smiling, he nodded at them and practically threw his dishes down before jumping to his feet and grabbing his glider from where it rested behind him. He didn't know where they were going to air bend or what these kids were capable of, all he knew was that he felt like he _needed_ to do this, air bend with them. His soul itself seemed to be smiling at the concept of air bending with his own kind once again and he was not going to pass this up.

"Wait!" Sokka called, catching the four before they could even move. Aang turned to face him, slightly irritated that he had interrupted his bliss.

"What is it, Sokka?" He asked evenly, shushing the children with his hands as they started to protest the delay.

Sokka stood up and walked over to them, careful to not step on the children. He could tell his friend wanted this badly, but they were still in hiding and they were still in enemy territory; they had to be careful and not let their guard down, especially with kids around.

"I know you want to do this, Aang―when was the last time you got to air bend with someone, after all? ―but you have to be careful; we're still in the Fire Nation, we're still on the run, so we can't take too many risks, otherwise we're all screwed."

"I'll be careful, Sokka." He assured him, nodding solemnly. He knew all that, really he did, but in the heat of things, it had all sort of… slipped his mind.

"I know _you_ will, or at least you'll try to be, but what about them? They're just kids; they're not used to all this, having to hide who they are and what they can do, being chased and hunted, and having to deal with it on their own―how well are you going to be able to protect all four of you if something happens?"

"We're in to middle of the forest, Sokka; what's going to happen?"

"It's not just any forest, Aang; it's a forest in the_ Fire Nation;_ there are Fire Nation soldiers _everywhere. _I was talking with Zuko about it the other night, and he said normally there are just soldiers patrolling the borders and entrances of forests like these, but since Azula knows we're out here and possibly in a forest like this one, the odds of there being _more_ soldiers patrolling and on the lookout for us is great, that's why we're constantly moving, to decrease the chances of them finding us. If you draw any attention to yourself with a stray gust of wind or something, we're gonna be in serious trouble; Appa's barely been able to fly with just us five lately, do you really think he'd do any better with all these extra people?

"Just be careful out there and don't draw any attention to yourselves; make sure those kids know what's on the line and don't let _them_ draw any attention to you guys either. Got it?" Sokka asked, leaning toward Aang and ignoring the kids as though they weren't even there, even though they could hear everything that was being said. Ikki found it particularly insulting and annoying, never one to enjoy being ignored, but she said nothing on the subject and did nothing other than make a face at Sokka's back, hoping that he'd be able to at least _feel_ that she had done it.

"Alright, I will." Aang assured him, willing to agree to just about anything right now if it meant being able to escape Sokka and his lectures. He was just itching to get out there and do some air bending. Well controlled, non-attention grabbing, fun, calm air bending. It was better than nothing.

Sokka scratched his chin for a moment, thinking it all over. He had warned him; made it clear to keep to themselves and not draw any unwanted attention or anything… Everything _seemed_ to be in order and he was just about to release them, but something was nagging at him, some feeling that told him he shouldn't let them go off too far or at all, really, but he had no reason to justify that feeling, and Aang _really_ wanted to air bend…

"I'd feel better if someone went with you guys," he finally declared, ignoring the looks of impatience from Ikki and Meelo and Aang's look of nearly veiled frustration.

"Do _you_ want to go with us, Sokka?" He asked, flashing him a smile. He knew, they all knew, that Sokka wasn't going to go with them, there was too much of a chance of getting blasted with wind and it was too early in the morning for that shit. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to make someone else go with them. Just in case.

"I was thinking more like either Toph or Katara." Sokka gestured vaguely over his shoulders at the girls in questions. Everyone, sans Zuko who was still dead to the world, looked at the two girls in question. Katara mustered up a smile whereas Toph just spit on the ground, she could _feel_ their eyes on her and the water bender, she just didn't care. And anyway, she was still pretty peeved about them teasing her about sticking up for Zuko earlier and wasn't about to go any damn where with any of them at the moment, not even Twinkle Toes and those weird air kids.

"They're not _my_ grandkids; send Sugar Queen with 'em." Toph shrugged, tipping her bowl back and swallowing the remainder of her food. She threw the empty bowl and spoon down on the ground where they'd stacked their dishes up the previous night and cracked her neck, the matter already being resolved in her mind. Katara rolled her eyes but put her bowl with Toph's anyway and stood up, grabbing her water skin instinctively.

"I'll go with you guys," She told Aang, walking over to where he stood with her brother and the kids.

"_Of course_ you will." Sokka smirked, he was ready to do some _serious_ teasing on the subject of the two as a couple, but the look on her face told him if he said anything more he'd regret it almost instantly, so he kept his mouth shut instead. "Just don't go too far and don't be too long; we've still got a schedule to keep. And you two," he gestured between Aang and Katara with his pointer finger quickly. "No funny business." He finished with a wink, not being able to help himself, to which both Aang and Katara blushed bright red as the children giggled along with everyone else; even _they_ knew what that meant.

Katara opened her mouth and was clearly about to say something in retaliation to her brother, but Aang grabbed her hand and pulled her forward, shepherding the kids forward with his staff as he did so. "Let's just go before he changes his mind." He hastily whispered under his breath once he pulled her close enough to hear. She simply nodded and let the reply die on her tongue, allowing Aang to pull her forward as she casually called back at everyone over her shoulder that they'd be back soon and for them not to get into too much while they were gone; she still wanted to be a part of any important conversations and find out all the details about everything, after all. At the last second, before they got too far away, Katara called back to her brother,

"And Sokka? Since I'm gonna be with _them_, you're gonna have to do the dishes after everyone's done eating."

Sokka's mouth dropped open―_him? Do the dishes?_ But―But he _hated_ doing the dishes!

"Katara, wait! I changed my mind! I'll go with the air benders and watch them do their magic air bending thingy and even let them mess up my hair! You stay here and do the dishes!" He called, almost as though he really expected her to take him up on his "offer."

"Too little, too late." She called back with a laugh, turning around and quickening her pace with Aang and the kids. With a sigh, Sokka resigned himself to his fate; he supposed she had won this round… Next time, he assured himself, he would win. There really was no other option. They were all so busy with this exchange, either partaking in it or watching it, that no one realized until they were out of sight that Aang hadn't even _asked_ Tenzin and Pema if it was okay for him to take the kids air bending. Katara hadn't asked to see if it was alright either, once they all thought of it almost simultaneously, but it was nothing more than a moot point now; it wasn't like Tenzin was going to run after them to make them _ask_ if they could take the kids out air bending, since he would have let them anyway, it would just be a waste of time and energy. Though it would be quite a sight to see him _running _after them, everyone was pretty sure he wouldn't do it just to entertain them, so no one said anything on the subject aloud, letting it drop quietly without ever letting it make a sound in the first place.

After the forms of Aang, Katara, Ikki, Jinora, and Meelo were out of sight, Sokka shook his head with a smile before sitting back down and finishing his food. With a full mouth, he nodded at Tenzin to gain his attention and swallowed once he was sure he had it.

"So when do those two get together again?" He asked.

"Oh," Tenzin shook himself out of his thoughts and turned his attention away from the spot where his adolescent parents had just stood with his children, he was usually so good at staying focused, but ever since first seeing them last night, he'd had a hard time focusing on any one thing for any length of time. He attributed his lack of concentration to not meditating lately, but he was sure there was more to it than that. He just wasn't entirely sure _what_.

At Sokka's question, however, he forced himself to concentrate and _think_, form full and coherent sentences without letting his mind wander, which seemed a lot harder at the moment than it should have been. For a moment, he couldn't help but think if this was what it was like for his pupil, Korra, when she seemed to be focusing on everything _but_ the subject at hand, but he quickly forced the thought out of his head; his Uncle Sokka had asked him a question, he needed to answer it. It was about his parents, when they had gotten together. He assumed he meant "officially," because it was pretty obvious the two were practically together now, as it was.

"After the war." He answered slowly, so much more slowly than usual. Pema, Korra, Lin, Mako, Bolin, and even Asami glanced at him curiously, not used to such a pause between the time someone asked him a question and the time he answered it. No one else seemed to notice the slight lull, but no one else really knew him, so why would they think anything of it? Pema almost reached a hand out to him, wondering what was the matter with him, but quickly caught herself, she was nursing the baby now; she needed both hands for this, so instead she settled for casting him a question look, mirroring the looks of everyone else present that knew him. He ignored them, however, pretending he didn't see them and focused instead on his Uncle Sokka, Uncle Zuko, and Aunt Toph. Zuko was still just sitting there, eyes closed, breathing steady, he thought for a second he really _was_ meditating, but then his eyes fluttered and opened for a fraction of a second before sliding shut again and he knew he wasn't.

Zuko sat up straight for a beat before slowly craning his neck around in a circle, trying to work the kinks out of it and his back. For a second, he wished he was an earth bender so he could get rid of the bench he was sitting on so he could just lay out flat on the ground and relax, but the feeling passed and he decided he liked being a fire bender too much to really wish for something like that, he would just have to either get comfortable sitting, or move his ass and lay on the ground himself, which really did seem like it would take too much effort at this point. He could have asked one of the earth benders among them to get rid of the bench _for_ him, but opening his eyes for just one second had seriously drained him, so he could only imagine what _talking_ would do to him, even though he knew Toph, Lin, Bolin, or even Korra would―

Fuck.

Korra.

He had to get that chick out of his head, seriously. She was from the future, plus, he was pretty sure she had a thing for that Mako dude, though he couldn't be sure yet since he hadn't spent much time observing them. Still, it was obvious. Almost as obvious as Aang and Katara, he laughed quietly to himself, the feeling of his chuckle rumbling in his chest bringing him a burst of energy. Why was he acting so weird? He knew it had to have something to do with Korra and him kind of liking her more than he should, but beyond that he hadn't a clue, so he slouched a bit and let his eyes droop even further down, listening intently to the sounds of the forest around them, which had quieted a bit since Aang, Katara, and the kids had gone off to do some bending, but not enough to be noticeable unless you were listening for it, and the sounds of swirling conversation as the rest of them slowly finished eating their food one by one. Whatever it is that this _was_, he was sure he'd get over it eventually. All he had to do was wait it out.

"How _long_ after the war?" Sokka asked, still not done with his interrogation of Tenzin. He was referring to, of course, the question Tenzin just answered, but apparently he hadn't answered it exactly to Sokka's liking, so the boy was forced to probe more on the subject.

"_Right_ after the war."

"Really now? And how do they get together? I mean, is there a kiss, a big, passionate confessional love scene or what? And, more importantly, I don't have to _see it,_ do I?"

Tenzin looked at him skeptically over the fire, raising one of his bushy eyebrows at the boy. Really now? _This_ daft boy grew up to be the Uncle Sokka that he knew, loved, and admired as a boy? **_Really_**?

"Is that all you care about? When my mom and dad get together? Isn't there anything else you'd like to know? Like whom Lin's father is?" He suggested with a sigh. Lucky for him, Sokka was very easily distracted when you waved something shiny in front of his face, and it didn't get much shinier than _that_. Instantly, Sokka's ears perked up and he nodded enthusiastically, brushing past the weirdness of this grown man calling his baby sister and one of his best friends "Mom and Dad" immediately, the prospect of knowing who would "get with" Toph much more interesting in his book than when those two would get together, because everyone had known it was only a matter of time, anyway, whereas with Toph… Well, no one was quite sure, so finding out… It would be a _too_ _perfect_ start to the day, as far as he was concerned.

Korra, Mako, Bolin, and Asami all snickered, they couldn't believe he'd just done that! Lin glared at Tenzin over Pema, astonished as well, but quickly getting over it as she wondered if she should just knock the man out or simply hope her gaze alone would set him ablaze or something of the sort, weirder things had been known to happen, after all. Of all the things there was to talk about, she just didn't know why _that_ subject had to be on the table at all, because surely there were more interesting things to discuss, right? With a sigh, she realized that that was probably just as interesting to them as anything else there was to talk about. Still, it made her uncomfortable, though she couldn't be sure why. She was just a personal person; she didn't like others to be "all up in her business" as she'd heard someone say about her mother once when she was very young. The rock didn't fall very far from the mountain, so it seemed, because Lin was exactly the same way…

"Come on, spill it, Tintin!" Sokka demanded, his hands empty now that he was finished with his food. Tenzin flinched as Sokka spoke his childhood nickname, he wasn't even born yet and already the name had stuck. Great. Just… _great_. "We're all dying to know who Toph winds up with!"

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Getting away from everyone and the stress and wondering and probing questions that came with everything from the last twelve hours was… Freeing, in a way, as far as Katara was concerned. Her hand was still connected to Aang's and she allowed herself to forget about everything else besides the warmth of his hand, the strength of his grip, the beating of his pulse beneath her own, the quickening of his heart to match her own, the swirl of the air around them, the rhythmic yet almost silent chorus of feet around her, everything was so… perfect right now. As perfect as it was going to be, anyway.

She didn't know how long they'd been walking in silence―Aang had shushed the children once and told them not to breathe a word until he told them it was okay, and they had listened to him, instantly quieting the low buzz of conversation that they had been creating ever since getting out of ear-shot of Sokka. Katara supposed that even though they'd never met him, they still respected him enough to listen to what he said and told them to do, which was just fine with her; the silence was welcomed after everything they'd been going through as of late―or how far away from everyone else they were, but the next thing she knew, Aang had stopped walking and pulled her to a stop as well. He glanced around where they were standing and nodded, deciding it was as good a spot as any for any air bending that was to be done at the moment. Katara glanced around as well, it wasn't exactly a clearing like the one they'd made camp at, but there were a couple less trees here than there were in the rest of the forest. There were still plenty of trees that stretched far above their heads, but they were so spread out in some places that the leaves did nothing to block out any of the sunshine that was glaring down at them, sweat collecting on Katara's brow already. If she didn't think she'd need to use her water, she would have used it to cool herself off a bit, but she knew better; if she had to sweat a little to save her water for "just in case" then so be it. That was just the way it was going to have to be.

"This seems like a good spot." Aang verbalized, squeezing Katara's hand one last time before letting it drop and walking away from her a bit, all three of the children following him anxiously. He held his staff in his hand excitedly, Katara could tell he was just itching to do some air bending with them, but he seemed to reign himself in at the last second and compose himself long enough to speak to the kids. They thought maybe he was going to give them some boring lecture like Tenzin had been known to do before they started training that was supposed to help them but would really just annoy them until they were old enough to actually understand it, but, instead, he just offered up what was wrapped up like friendly advice when, in reality, it was stern words and a warning.

"You better be careful with where you aim and what you do. You shouldn't use too much power or anything like that. You guys really have to be careful out here, because if you're not…" he glanced over at Katara for a second, the words stuck in his throat. They had heard him talking to Sokka not too long ago, but did they really understand what it meant? Would they really get what was on the line here and why―truly _why_―they couldn't just go nuts with their bending like they probably wanted to? He wasn't sure, so he looked to Katara for an answer, but she didn't seem to know any more than he did, so he turned back to the kids, their faces expectant and curious. He took in a deep breath and swallowed before continuing. "If you're not, something bad will happen. Okay?"  
But they couldn't care less what he said and nodded enthusiastically just to get him to say they could start. To add to the illusion, they all said something that told him they understood him, which was good enough for him; as soon as their words were past his ears, he was giving them the green light for bending, and all four of them were taking off, sprinting in every which direction, blowing air at each other, riding on balls of air, making the leaves on the trees dance violently… They were having a blast, plain and simple.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"No, we're not." Toph insisted, clenching her teeth. There were just some things, after all, that could remain unknown until it came time to discover them for yourself. This, evidentially, was one of those things. At least to her. Fuck Snoozles and his curiosity, she really didn't want to know who her, er, _daughter's_ father was. Man, that was still so weird. It was just really hard for her to believe that she had a daughter. No matter how many times she thought it, said it, or heard it, it still didn't really… make sense. She knew the science behind it all, of course, but she had always swore off having kids. What could have possibly changed her mind? She didn't know. And she didn't _want_ to know. Not until it was time, anyway.

"Yes we are." Sokka confirmed, only to be met with a sickeningly deadly glare.

"No, we're not."

"Aw, come on, Toph! I wanna know who you wind up with!"

"Well_ I _don't! And since it's _my_ life, _my_ husband, and _my_ daughter I think it should be **_my_ **decision, and I've decided that we don't want to know!" She declared, daring him to say anything, daring him to disagree with her. He pouted and sunk down into his earth bench. Yue help him, he actually thought what she said made… _sense_, which was not a good sign at all.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Watching from the side lines, Katara divided her attention between the air benders and the forest around them, the reason Sokka had wanted someone to go with them, after all, was so someone could keep an eye out for Fire Nation soldiers and make sure nothing fishy was going on around them. So she listened and she watched as best she could, but she didn't see or hear or notice anything out of the ordinary, and eventually she found her attention always wandering back to the air benders. They were having a lot of fun out there, she could tell, and Aang was smiling wider than she'd seen smile in a long time; he was happier than she'd seen him in a long time. She adverted her gaze from the air nomad and turned her attention to her water skin, the patterns and scars in the leather were suddenly very interesting to her. She turned it over in her hands, and then took it in one and twirled it around, passed it back and forth between her hands, trying to distract herself from what was at the forethought of her mind. Which was always easier said than done…

"Katara, relax." Aang's voice suddenly called out to her, cutting through the sounds of whooshing air all around them. Her head snapped up and she saw Aang floating towards her on a ball of air, slowly disappearing beneath him as he neared her until, with one final movement, he released the borrowed air and stood tall next to her. "There's no need to be so on edge. Relax." He repeated, and then turned to Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo then and told them he was just going to watch them for a few and see what they could really do; maybe he would see something they were having trouble with or needed work on or could just improve altogether and could help them, not that that was very likely with Tenzin teaching them air bending, but they didn't know that. And anyway, it was a chance for them to show off for their dead Grandpa Aang―like they were going to pass _that_ up!

Once they all started going off on their own again, trying to impress Aang and maybe even Katara, Aang turned to Katara and shook his head with a smile. "They're good kids. Hyper, but still good kids. They're air benders, alright."

"I think what you mean," Katara started with a smile, "Is that they're _your_ grand-kids, alright."

"Yeah, that, too." He laughed, shaking his head once again. Katara smiled at him and swallowed, turning her eyes to a patch of emptiness between a couple of nearby trees. Somewhere out there, there were Fire Nation soldiers. Looking for them. Hunting them. She knew it, she could _feel_ it. And something told her they weren't too far away…

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"I'd let you find out who I end up with…" Sokka mumbled, a last ditch attempt to get Toph to give in, because he knew, with her sensitive hearing, that she would hear him. Instead of sighing in defeat and giving in, allowing him to beg Tenzin to tell him who Lin's father was, she scoffed at him, not believing what she'd just heard.

"Everyone already _knows_ who you end up with. Most of us would be willing to bet money on it―just ask Twinkles and your sister when they get back. I'd tell you to ask Sifu Hotman over there, but he's pretty much useless right now." She shrugged, nodding vaguely in Zuko's direction.

Sokka's face fell as he asked, "Still playing around with his nickname?" His eyes half-lidded in an unimpressed manner, because really, _Sifu Hotman_? She could do better than that. That was something Aang might call him jokingly during training or something, but not something he could see _Toph_ calling him on a daily basis.

"Yeah. Aang calls him that sometimes; I wanted to see if it fit him. It doesn't."

"I didn't think it would." He shook his head nonchalantly, it was neither here nor there but still something that―Wait a second! What had she said about already knowing who he ends up with? Did everyone else know something that he didn't? "Who do you guys think I end up with? Is there something I missed?" He demanded suddenly, narrowing his eyes at Toph and then Zuko, neither of whom saw the look he was giving them. He was almost tempted to glare at those from the future as well,―for a moment, he had forgotten the people from the future, minus Tenzin, were there at all, but once he did, he remembered that _they_ knew for sure who he ended up with, and it kind of ticked him off that they knew something _he_ didn't. Especially since it was about _him_,―but caught himself just before he did, realizing that that wouldn't exactly _help_ his chances of getting his answers.

Toph looked at him like he was an idiot of some impossible degree, but otherwise ignored his comment; he would figure it out soon enough. And if he didn't… Well, more entertainment for them in the long-run, then. She plastered on an obviously fake smile and flashed it at him and spoke in her most condescending, you're-an-idiot tone, something that wasn't that hard to do―_especially_ when you were trying to cover up a crush you had on someone, but that wasn't the point of what she was hoping to accomplish, just an added perk.

"Never mind; no need to worry and over-load that tiny little brain of yours. Wouldn't want you to pull a muscle or break something…"

"Yeah, well you're―" his retort, however, was cut short as they all heard a loud crash in the distance, and quieted instantly. Zuko's eyes ripped open and he snapped into an at-alert position. The whole forest around them had grown quiet.

_Too_ quiet.

No birds, no bugs, no crickets, no animals, even the wind itself was still. Something was wrong, terribly, terribly wrong. He could feel it in his heart; he just _knew_ something was wrong. He threw his gaze around the circle and saw the looks of surprise and bewilderment on the faces of everyone and he knew they could sense it, too. He was sure of it. He looked to Toph, wondering if she could pick up on something he could not, but she made no indication other than gritting her teeth and leaning down into the ground harder with her feet, trying to see what was happening, if their friends were okay, but she made no indication of whether she was picking something up, which Zuko interpreted as meaning they were too far out of her range for her to see anything.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Hey," Aang reached a hand out and pushed Katara's chin up so the two made eye contact. "What's the matter?" As though he really had to ask. What _wasn't_ the matter, she wanted to yell, but didn't, because it would draw too much attention to themselves, and probably frighten the children, neither of which Katara wanted to happen. So instead, she just shook her head at him and sighed, knowing he wasn't bound to buy it and would push matters forward until she broke down and just told him. And once she did, he would go on about something the monks once told him or something the air nomads had believed or that he, as the Avatar, knew or thought, and he would try and make things better for her. Really, he would, and she would appreciate it but―

Suddenly, Aang's hands weren't at his sides anymore. His staff was on the ground, having landed quite unceremoniously with a sharp thud, a small cloud of dirt rising as it did so; One of Aang's hands was wrapping itself around Katara's waist, and the other was cupping her cheek gently, acting of their own accord as he leaned in and slowly melted his lips against her own, closing his eyes in the same instant that she did. Her own hands snaked up and wrapped themselves around his neck, leaning into the kiss just as he did. Time was lost to them in that instant, it didn't matter and it seemed as though it never did before and never would again, they were just so wrapped up in each other. The feel of their lips, the pounding of their hearts, the racing of their pulse, the jittery feeling in their stomachs; the crescendo of everything, all the stolen glances and secret staring, all the longing and pining, all the blushing and denying of feelings, all of it led and added up to this one moment. One moment that wouldn't just be_ one moment_ one day. A moment that would be repeated hundreds, thousands, hell, maybe millions of times in the future if Aang had his way, Tenzin had said they got married and had three kids, after all, so there was definitely kissing_ plus more_ in their future, but saying that out loud might kill the moment, or at least make him blush ten times redder than he'd ever been before, unbeknownst to him that Katara's thoughts weren't very far off from his own...  
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Korra stood up, her eyes shining with worry and wonder. Aang, Katara, Ikki, Meelo, and Jinora. They were all out there, wherever the danger―because she, and everyone else, were _sure_ there was some sort of danger out there now,―was, and she knew Aang and Katara were powerful and great masters, but Sokka had been right when he asked Aang if he'd be able to protect all of them if something happened. She believed in her former life, really she did, and she had no doubts in his or Master Katara's abilities, but she just wasn't willing to risk the lives of those kids. Not only because they were Tenzin's children, but also because they were her friends, her air-bending peers, as it was, plus, she _really_ didn't want the world and spirit world to be thrown out of balance or something if one of them died. Because, somehow or another, _she_ would be blamed, and she did **_not_ **want to be blamed for the end of the world, thank you very much.

Mako glanced up at Korra, he could tell what she was thinking and he wasn't going to let her do it. Not alone, anyway. If she planned on running off to face whatever danger was out there, he would be right behind her. Whether she wanted him to be or not didn't matter; he would do it, he would be there, he would _always_ be there…

Asami and Bolin exchanged a look over Mako and Korra, and then glanced at Tenzin, Pema, Sokka, Zuko, and finally Toph, Pema was still busy nursing the baby, but everyone else looked determined and ready to face whatever was out there. Too bad for those from the future looking for a fight, this one belonged to the Original Team Avatar; they would not get to see any action in this battle on this day.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Eventually, Aang and Katara popped apart, lungs screaming for air in a way that even an air bender couldn't ignore. As they stood there, catching their breaths, they stared at one another, cheeks rosy despite the heat, chests heaving in sync with one another; they felt connected in a way they hadn't before. They'd kissed before, no doubt about it, but neither times had ever felt like _this_ afterwards. They both looked like they wanted to say something, but neither got the chance, because just as they both opened their mouths to say something, they heard a squeak from the center of the clearing and noticed for the first time that the air was… Still.

Like, _still_ still.

No wind, no air bending. Last they checked, the kids had been air bending, probably this close to making their own personal tornado. Panic crept up on both Aang and Katara as they realized they had stopped and their minds immediately jumped to the worst possible scenario. They turned their heads in the same second and saw Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo standing huddled together in the center of the clearing, fear written on all of their faces, eyes wide and scared, almost on the verge of tears. Aang scrunched his eyebrows together and picked up his staff, sensing the danger before he saw it. Together with Katara and her water skin, he ran immediately over to the children, asking no questions until he got to them, and even then it wasn't necessary, as they both followed their line of vision and saw just what was frightening the children. And they had to admit, it was a damn good reason to be afraid.

Standing there, just a few feet from where Katara and Aang had just been, was a whole fleet of Fire Nation soldiers.

Led by none other than Azula herself.

* * *

**So how's zat for a chapter ending? What did you guys think of the Kataang in this chapter? Usually, stuff like that is saved for the end of shows/mangas/animes/books/movies and even some fics I've read on here before, and it just pisses me off to no end. Like seriously, it's like, we _know_ certain characters are going to end up together, and we _want_ to see them together, want to see a kiss or something to confirm our favorite shippings; if the couple is going to wind up together anyway, why the hell not just get them together before the end so we can see what that relationship would be like canon? You know? Anyway, I thought it'd be a nice touch. I mean, they know for certain that they wind up together now, so I would think that maybe Aang would be a little bit… _braver_ when it comes to this sort of thing, you know? Oh, you know what I liked? You know that episode "The Headband" at the beginning of Book Three? The one with the secret dance party and Aang going to a fire nation school and Sokka's got the fake beard and mustache on from when he was pretending to be Aang's father and he's all, "Go to your room!"? Yeah, I loved that episode! Anyway, the part where Aang gets Katara to dance with him and she's all, "Aang, everyone's watching." And he's just all, "Don't worry about them. It's just you and me right now, Katara." And he gives her _that look._ I love it! It's like, damn, Aang, you got mad skill, brah. That was totally weak, what I just said, I mean... Anyway, he's got a lot more confidence in this area when he's dancing, so it seems. Such a charmer. Seriously. I would love to meet a guy like that. I can't dance worth shit, but I'd definitely be willing to learn for a guy like _that_. All suave and charming and a nice guy... That was oddly personal, now that I think about it, but oh well.**

**So. Azula. That crazy bitch again. At first, it was just going to be a bunch of random Fire Nation soldiers surrounding them, but then I figured including Azula would make you guys want the next chapter more, make you more anxious to read it and wait in bittersweet anticipation to find the alert in your inbox informing you I've delivered the sweet, glorious gift of the next chapter… Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me you guys _don't_ want the next chapter even more than you wanted to previous ones. Go ahead. I dare you. If you're anything like me, you'll tell me that just because I dared you to, and if that's the case then I won't hold it against you. Pinky swear.**

**The part with Zuko just sitting there in a trance, just listening to the forest? I wrote that part whilst listening to something on YouTube. "Sounds of The Forest" is what I looked up―I had a sinus infection at the time****, so I needed to relax and somehow or another I wound up listening to **_**that**_**. And I just started typing to help take my mind off the pain―because I **_**cannot**_** swallow pills―and that's just what wound up coming out. Actually, I've still got the sinus infection, and laughing kind of makes the pain _worse_, but other than that I'm fine.**

**So question: what kinds of nicknames have you come across in your fanfic travels that pertain to Zuko? Just wondering. And I can't really remember if Toph had a nickname for him in the show that she called him all the time. Like, you know how she calls Aang Twinkle Toes even when he's forty? Does she have a nickname like that for Zuko? I can't quite recall, but I don't think she does. ****Personally, I rather like "Prince Emo" but that's just because I like writing Zuko all brooding and sarcastic and emo-esque. I just like to think of him in that way; makes him seem hotter, you know? And Sifu Hotman… I dunno, it made me laugh. "Flame-io, hotman!" You know? That still makes me laugh. Got any nicknames for Zuko? I'd love to hear them.**

**Have I ever told you guys how much I hate summer? Seriously, I've only had one good summer in my lifetime, as far as I can remember, and all the others have pretty much sucked. Summer of '08 was the best summer of my life. Every summer before and after have all sucked big time, and this one is no exception. I try to make my summers awesome. I plan for fun summers, I try and make them fun and meaningful and worth it, but somehow or another something always gets fucked up and my summers wind up sucking. They get pushed back into the recesses of my mind to rot and die slow, painful deaths, but they refuse to cooperate and sometimes sneak up on me, reminding me of how sucky summer is. And the heat really doesn't do much to tip the scales in its favor. I'll take fall and winter any day of the week, thank you very much. I hate the heat. Hate. It. I can't wait for October, just because that's when it really starts to feel like fall. It's such a small window, though, because once November comes around it feels like winter, but nevertheless, it never fails to deliver. I can't wait for the day I wake up in a month or two and the air in my room smells like Autumn for the first time and I notice that somehow or another summer has zoomed past for another year and soon the leaves will be changing color, which I always love, and then it'll be Halloween before I know it and even though I'm too old to Trick-or-Treat, I'll still dress up and just steal my little brother's candy when he's not looking. And then November will come and I'll turn 18, my dad will turn 50 the following day, and then before we know it, it'll be Thanksgiving and then Christmas and then New Year, and it'll be winter and I'll spend the majority of my down-time curled up under my blankets or in my favorite, over-sized hoodie reading books and sipping hot chocolate… I can't wait for winter. My dad hates it, he hates how stupid drivers on the road seem to get in our town when there's even a light dusting of snow on the ground, and he hates how high the gas bill gets because my mom always turns the heat up past his designated 65 degrees once he leaves for work and turns it back down just before he gets home. He always knows, of course, that she turns it up once he leaves, and he acts like it bothers him, but it's all just part of the winter dance by now…**

**So far, the best part of my Summer has been writing this fic and getting reviews from you guys. Before summer officially started, I decided that this summer would be all about reading and writing, nothing else. Everything else would just have to wait. Reading and writing were going to be the most important things in my life this summer. That's it. My world would revolve around it until the end of September, the **_**official**_** end of summer. _Oh, you want to play a video game, Caitlin?_ Too bad; that book has to go back to the library tomorrow and you're not even half-way done! Get to it! _You want to watch the new episode of Pretty Little Liars?_ Tough shit; you need to go back and rewrite that last chapter of CM that you wrote last night! _You need to watch the new episode of Baby Daddy because the guy who plays Ben is just _**_**so**_**_ fine?_ Yeah, okay; that seems reasonable. Hm, that last one's not such a good example, but you get what I'm saying. My reading and writing are the only two things that are supposed to matter this summer, and, so far, I'm proud to say, I've stuck to it. I can be a bit mean to myself sometimes, I'll admit, but it helps get shit done, so I'm not complaining. I've talked about it with myself and we're cool. Yes, I know how crazy that makes me sound so just shut up about it.**

**So, anyway, the riddle. The one from last chapter, to refresh your memory, was:**

_I can be red or green or yellow. I'll help you stay a healthy fellow. Inside, I am white; I do not emit light. But if you look just right, I hold a star. What am I?_

**And the answer, of course, is an apple. That one, admittedly, was a bit easy, as nearly everyone got that one right, but still, congratulations are in order for those of you who got it right, and those people are: Lupin and Tonks Forever, Bubbly131, TigerDiva10, Forever . and . Always . a . Cullen―sorry about the spaces; the name wouldn't show up if I didn't have them there―, SpiritMusician, wvfj afjt, X-Chick303, Linzerj, Alpha-Omega-Paradox, Alice, Guest, animefreak728, Guest, Washingtonian, Amber Annabeth Blue, XIce-and-SnowX, peanutbuttergurl6, Artemis, Guest, Rex185, and, last but not least, Bwahahaha. Congrats, once again, to everyone who got it right. And, for the record, I didn't mention the same person, Guest, a few times, it's just that not everyone leaves signed reviews, obviously, or even a name of any kind when they review, obviously, so I'm assuming it's a few different people otherwise _someone_ has _way_ too much time on their hands. Just saying. And if I forgot to mention anyone who got it right, you must know how sorry I am about that and that I would never ever leave you out on purpose, so you'll have to forgive me. Anyhow, I made brownies earlier, so have a few virtual ones for getting it right; you guys earned 'em. So here's this chapter's riddle:**

_A man was found dead in his study. He was slumped over his desk and a gun was in his hand. There was a cassette recorder on his desk. When the police entered the room and pressed the play button on the tape recorder they heard: "I can't go on. I have nothing to live for." Then there was the sound of a gunshot. How did the detective immediately know that the man had been murdered and it wasn't a suicide?_

**Hmm, I dunno, this one seems a tad easy, as well. I'll have to dig up a _really_ challenging one for the next chapter...**

**With this chapter, I didn't actually go back and reread it a million times like I usually do****―I already mentioned my sinus infection****―so if there are any inconsistencies or mistakes or anything, be sure to let me know and I'll be sure to go back and fix it, okay?**

**Anyway, be sure to let me know what you think!**

_Always,  
__~Hisa-Ai~_


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